Microsoft's Metro is on the wrong track for many Windows users

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Computerworld | Software, insider, windows 8 Add a new comment

October 11, 2011, 4:12 PM — You know me. I'm a Linux guy. Still, I think Windows has gone from being a bad joke of a desktop operating system (Windows ME) to being a reasonable choice (Windows 7). Its course hasn't been steady, though: After the still popular XP SP3, we got Vista. And now we have Windows 8. What the heck is Steve Ballmer thinking?

Microsoft has made it clear that it considers Windows 8's Metro interface and applications to be the future. When I look at Metro, however, I see gaudy colors, boxy designs, applications that can either run as a small tile or as full screen with no way to resize or move windows. Where have I seen this before? Wait, I know! Windows 1.0.

Twenty-five years of user-interface development and this is what we get? Scary.

Tweak the Windows 8 Metro interface

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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (sjvn@vna1.com) has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was cutting-edge and 300bit/sec. was a fast Internet connection -- and we liked it!

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