Windows 8 Early Build Hints At Apple, WebOS Competitor - EWeek

Microsoft's next Windows could be a cross-platform OS in the style of Apple's iOS or Hewlett-Packard's webOS, if supposed early builds are to be believed... "Bloggers Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, in a series of April postings on Rivera’s Within Windows blog, have described the various features of what they claim is an early build of Windows 8: an Office-style ribbon integrated into Windows Explorer, complete with tools for viewing libraries, manipulating images and managing drive assets; an unlock screen that harkens to the 'Metro' design style already present in Windows Phone 7; an 'immersive' user interface and a built-in PDF reader they call 'Modern Reader.'"

Comments

App X, Ribbons, and hogwash

[Iamthecheese]

TFA is full of empty speculation and even if Microsoft were trying to do this their extensive history of withholding key, drastic hardware control level features at the last minute argues against the idea they could carry it off. There will be no pan-fundatio Windows 8.0

Flaming

[Jorl17]

I be flaming.

Microsoft should just keep pushing good stability features for their crappy OS. Every single OS release is an "oh we got this new x and that new y (both available in other decent OS for ages, except for the occasional innovation)" moment, instead of a "We have increased security and enabled you to fully control your computer. If you are not a computer expert, this OS is great, as it always has been, but if you are a computer expert, then now we have given you the ability to fully manipulate your computer" kind of thing. That's what Windows should do -- add powerusers to their marketshare (I mean real powerusers). Also, it isn't FLOSS (I just had to troll :D)

Dear GOD no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Office-style ribbon integrated into Windows Explorer

If it has this, it can get the hell out.
RIBBON IS AWFUL.

They say they created this crapfest of a UI for touchscreens, yet most of the stuff in it tends to be a clusterfuck anyway!
Not only that, it is usually inconsistent as well. Huge buttons for single features, like Bold, but then they add complex features in to tiny little buttons for god knows what reason.
No, an IDIOT designed Ribbon, then used that as an excuse for the huge stupid looking buttons.

Hopefully they will still allow for classic Windows theme as well, the one they added in Vista was terrible. The one they added in XP was terrible.
I don't want silly shiny buttons for the sake of being shiny. I don't want to use my god damn GPU to minimize a window.
Interfaces aren't more useful when they are constantly animating like in EVERY FILM EVER, it gets annoying real fast, more so when the interface has deliberate slowdowns for "aesthetics". No, just NO!
If nobody knows what I am talking of, I mean menus having delays because ~instant changes are daunting to people~. (not even joking, it is a paraphrase, but that was one reason)

Hopefully they got rid of whatever idiot designed the UI for Vis7a, they never had a damn clue.
They couldn't decide between touchscreen and desktop.
Maybe they should have TWO separate UI settings for both and stop crippling either of them. Touchscreen UIs are anti-desktop friendly, and vice versa. (unless your eyes are made of melons and you need a window in front of your eyes in order to see anything, in which case I would suggest laser surgery since it is really cheap now, safe, and works)

Re:Why?

[SpryGuy]

That's certifiably false, regardless of your experiences. I'd wager you have some dodgy hardware (memory going bad?) or a really awful 3rd party driver.

Because Win7 is as rock solid an OS as I've seen out of MS, and it's many times more stable and solid than XP ever was or could be.

Your experience is an abberation, and clearly the OS is not at fault here, something else is. You're blaming the wrong thing.