Aero Glass UI No More On Windows 8

New submitter closer2it writes with news of interface changes in Windows 8. From the article: "Microsoft has revealed that it has made some big changes to its desktop UI for Windows 8, which includes moving away from Aero Glass — the UI first introduced with Vista. According to the company, this means visual changes that include 'flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back distracting gradients.' Despite all of these changes with the interface, the company doesn't appear to be worried about the issue of 'learnability.' Instead, Microsoft believes that with a little help it won't take long for users to adapt to the new operating system."

Comments

Relearn an OS?

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead, Microsoft believes that with a little help it won't take long for users to adapt to the new operating system.

I finally agree with Microsoft on this one. They are correct, with only a little help it won't take long for users to adapt to a new OS such as MacOSX or Linux! Glad they finally are admitting it.

The only reason anyone stuck with Windows was the backwards compatibility and all the software available and that people have already invested in. Seems they are working pretty hard to remove as much of that as they can from Win8, which lowers the reasons to use it from 1 to 0 for a large number of people.

Nice job guys...

[erac3rx]

Take away the one thing that differentiates you from Mac OS X-- the fact that your UI isn't ugly. We like Aero. If you make your UI ugly, why not just use OS X with it's ugly brushed aluminum and stoplights. Works for me. Metro is cool on tablets and phones, ridiculous and stupid on desktops. Clearly we've got this 'every other release is crap' thing going on with Windows now. But keep in mind that it's easier than ever to switch to Mac these days. Sure the UI is ugly, but the architecture is clearly superior to Windows, and 80% of the time we're using a web browser anyway. Make the UI suck and there's nothing left. Sure, Windows Explorer is superior to Finder (in basically every way), but that's not enough to keep us from using Mac OS X. If you thoroughly ruin the UI, there aren't many good reasons left to use Windows.

Re:Nice job guys...

[kimvette]

"at least twice as much" is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?

Sure, you can buy an i7 PC a bit cheaper than the cheapest i7 equipped Mac, but the case will be louder, more flimsy, probably more gaudy. and won't have bluetooth and wifi integrated out of the box. Is it cheaper? Yes, depending on your perspective. Add in a good case, good keyboard and mouse, WiFi, equivalent interfaces (DisplayPort/Mini-DisplayPort/HDMI) then you've surpassed the price of the Mac.

Notebooks: Yes, you can get cheaper notebooks, but they will be flimsy pieces of crap than a Macbook, with a higher failure rate. My notebook (a 17" Dell Precision Mobile Workstation) with a full desktop chipset, Core 2 Quad Extreme, WUXGA+ (1920x1200) display with RGB-LED backlighting covering the full Adobe color gamut, internal RAID support (dual hard drives - newer ones support THREE hard drives!), and a THREE-button trackpointer AND touchpad, is actually more solidly built than my Macbook Pro (which I also have but never use; it's a Core Duo) but costs far more. I've dropped it from a 4' high ledge onto a tiled concrete floor with the screen open, and it never stopped running and the screen and everything else is fine. Very solid, but definitely cheap, either. I could buy a much cheaper PC notebook, but it will not have the fast desktop chipset, won't have an NVIDIA Quadro video card, won't have DisplayPort, and will have fewer USB ports than I have, and likely won't have ESATA and definitely won't have multiple hard drive bays. So, will it (a cheap notebook) save money? It depends on your needs.

I needed desktop/workstation performance on the go and that's what I have. You can't even get a desktop chipset in an Apple notebook. The great thing about PCs is there is a huge expanse of options ranging from ultra-cheap notebooks with integrated graphics and mobile chipsets, but flimsy cases. Decent notebooks with mobile chipsets but will last longer. Mobile chipsets in solid cases (equivalent to the Macbook Pro) but will have a low failure rate of only 2%-4%, and then you have the true mobile Desktop/Workstation offerings from Dell and Lenovo that are built like tanks, include desktop chipsets and workstation graphics cards and multiple hard drive support, and are priced accordingly. And, that selection works. The ironic thing is the more expensive notebooks (Latitude, Precision, Thinkpad, Toughbook) are cheaper for some people who are on the go a lot and work in both professional and industrial environments; the notebooks can take a real beating, and if you do break something, every individual part can be ordered, be it a screen hinge, a bezel, motherboard, hard drive sled/tray/bracket, or the entire chassis. The cheaper notebooks are disposable. Macbook Pro? Built like a tank but still has the retarded one-button mouse (yes yes I know about the "virtual" second button, but try using middle-button functionality in X in Linux!!), and when you do need a part, good luck ordering it, You have to deal with the "not"-genius bar who will only want to sell you on a new Macbook, or you need to go to feeBay or to a few other sites that offer the parts. Oh, and you can't get a Macbook with a desktop chipset.

Why is the desktop chipset a big deal? Faster throughput, better performance, and yes, there is a tradeoff of battery life, but IMHO it is worth it. Even with an outdated CPU and video card, my notebook still feels plenty fast, especially since I upgraded it with "hybrid" hard drives.

Conclusion: comparing apples to apples (no pun intended), a Macintosh notebook, iMac or Mac Mini is not really more expensive than the equivalent PC. The Mac Pro is a different story, though - but honestly if you go with something like a Supermicro workstation (which will have far faster throughput and more PCI-E x16 slots) it will be MUCH louder, unless you buy just the board and install your EATX board into a third-party chassis.

Re:Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, agai

[bondsbw]

I like Windows 8. I'm typing this post from my laptop with Windows 8 CP, and I have little problem with it. In Windows 7, the start menu makes me click on two buttons and scroll a list, then click another folder and click an icon. In Windows 8, the start screen has large buttons that are easier to hit with a mouse (better for Fitts' law). The Metro-style apps help focus, and the snap view feature helps multitask. Most of the Windows desktop applications have been revamped in a good way. The startup time has improved considerably, and the whole OS seems a bit faster.

While not surprising, it is quite annoying that every post on the internet about changing something in Windows is met with hatred and fear. Get over it, you figured out how to use Windows 95 after the "abomination" of replacing Program Manager. You figured out how to use XP with its colorful toy interface. You figured out that Aero wasn't going to drain all the performance of your computer and slow it to a grinding halt. And now you're going to figure out that really smart geeks knew what they are doing when they put a lot of thought into the design of the Windows 8 UI.

(Not to say that I like everything in Windows 8... for instance, I put my taskbar on the left, so now my Windows 7 work computer has the start button in the upper left, and my Windows 8 laptop activates the start screen from the lower left. The split-thumb keyboard on the tablet interface really needs work. And I am a bit pissed that Microsoft put the snap view cutoff at 1366 px wide, when my laptop display can only do 1280.)

Apple redefined the "modern" look

[MobyDisk]

Everyone was happily moving along in a world where more gradients, more gloss, or more 3D was the way of the future. Then Apple changed all that by going retro. They still used gradients and gloss, but in a more subtle way. Their icons were 2D, flat, iconic rather than 3D and realistic. This changed more than just GUIs: slideshows, packaging, advertisements, and trade show posters are changing too.

Microsoft is just following the trend. This will be consistent with the look and feel of Metro, and Visual Studio 2012.

Nah, we'll just bypass it

[Sycraft-fu]

If they keep Metro as The One UI to Rule Them All, as it seems they wish to, my strategy at work will be twofold:

1) Don't roll out Windows 8. 7 has support until 2020, there's plenty of time. We'll stay on 7, and we'll make sure to let the MS rep know why.

2) In cases where we need/want 8 get a UI mod to make 8 look like 7. Someone will have what we need, probably Stardock. They already have a start button restorer (http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/) and given that UI customization is their big market, I imagine they'll develop a suite of tools that'll make 8 act like 7 to whatever degree you desire.

So that's my plan. If people want to use Metro they'll be allowed, of course, but I'm not going to be doing any hand holding on it. Anyone who says "I don't like this can I have the old way back," will be accommodated.

I just think it is funny that MS doesn't seem to realize they are going to create another XP, meaning an OS that people don't want to move off of. XP wasn't all their fault, it was just the first real solid version of Windows most people had used (the first NT based OS for home users), Vista had teething problems initially due to very lazy-ass driver development from many manufacturers, and there was a big smear campaign against it (to the point I'll see people at work say that Vista sucks and they like 7... working on a Vista machine, they don't even know what it is, they just know it is bad, so they think they are on 7).

Well this time they'll do it again with 7, but it'll be all their fault. They have a good OS that people were happy with the upgrade to. If they release one that people don't like, they'll get stuck in the mentality of "7 is the only good OS, I won't upgrade."

That's the part I'm going to be annoyed about. Not 8, but in 2018 when 9 or 10 is the thing and it is a good OS, trying to convince people that yes, there is a new good one and you need to move to it before support expires.

Re:They got it all wrong

[Fishead]

If I could buy a car today with no features, minimal upholstery, nothing more than a chassis, powertrain, and seat... available in flat black paint... I'd buy one so fast your head would spin.

Re:They got it all wrong

[Billly Gates]

Speaking of learning curve, myself who is an expert user (not a grandma), had to google
1. How to shut it off
2. How to use tabs in IE 10 Metro
3. How to change a setting not in the desktop control panel.

For 3, I had to pretend I was going to log off and then from there change the setting listed for something totally unrelated. I am a slashdotter and an advanced user. To me that is FAIL with a capital F.

My father is 65 and there is no way in hell he could use this! His Ipad has visible tabs and it did take him awhile to figure out how to shut it off but it was logical as a button similar to most appliances. He figured it fairly easily. Windows 8 is more of a phone UI than even a tablet, yet MS wants this on a desktop?

I figured it might have saving grace ifyou stick to the desktop but now MS wants to turn this into Vista Basic in order to make Metro look better and take away AERO preview and peak. Holy crap.

That was the final for me. I wont ever use it. I left Linux because of Unity and Gnome shell and now this. I am dumbfounded and now do not know what to do. I will stay with Windows 7 and become like those annoying XP loyalists but with Windows 7. Lets hope the future is brighter and it is a shitty thing to do for Windows users who wont know what hit them when they need a new computer in the next several years.

Re:Less and less interested in windows 8

[omfgnosis]

Are the extremely functional UI's that have evolved for the last 30 years that broken?

Yes! They are! But the theme change in Windows 8 isn't meant to address that, it's meant to address the glaring style differences between the desktop and Metro—Metro is meant to address how broken the desktop UI is. Is it a success? Hard to say, but I'll bet it's a wash, and it's undermined by retaining the desktop.

I hope geeks will come to realize that just because they use and know WIMP doesn't mean that's the correct or even best interface approach, and it doesn't mean it's the best for every use case. We also need to realize that we're not the target audience of efforts like Metro, and whereas that audience will likely greatly benefit from losing the complexities of windows and menu bars, we geeks will thrive by adapting, and adopting power tools, as we always do.

I doubt Windows 8 is for me, and I think there's a lot wrong with the approach, but I think the upset over Metro is extremely misplaced and greatly misses the point. WIMP just doesn't serve most users well, and it's an ugly elitist demand that those users adapt to the complex UIs we happen to be familiar with so that we might not be faced with the choice of a new UI approach.