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Microsoft Drops 'Metro' Name For Windows 8 UI
hawkinspeter writes "The BBC is reporting that Microsoft is dropping the 'Metro' name for the new Windows 8 UI. Apparently, the catchy new name they've settled on is 'Windows 8 style UI!' This has happened due to a (potential) trademark dispute with Metro AG, a German retail giant. Microsoft said, 'We have used Metro style as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines. As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialogue to a broad consumer dialogue we will use our commercial names.' I'm wondering if Microsoft planned this to get publicity for their new OS and UI or whether they just forget to check on how 'Metro' is used around the world."
the chose to use Bing to check. Shoulda used Google!
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
Did Ballmer come up with it himself?
Me for stuff I work on I give my products Latin Code Names for the product. That give me time to get the product done and working well before I can come up with a more creative or marketing friendly name.
The code name Metro doesn't really tell us anything, it is just a place holder name to work on your project... Mainly because all your code is placed in a folder with a name and in a project with a name.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
M$ set to release the all new Ford Tablet, the Walmart Phone 9, and the Trader Joe's Web Application Framework!
I have better UI name in mind... Windows Start UI
just look up metro on google
a bunch of transit authorities use the word, there's metroPCS, some library consortium, a few other government entities, etc.
clearly, the word is common and abstract enough that anyone can claim it's usage
trademark law, copyright law, intellectual property: it is such an absurd, useless pox on civilization. i foresee and fervently hope that history will write of this century about how the whole concept of intellectual property law became abolished. it's such useless wasteful, lawyer mongering nonsense by trolls
we really need to just lose the entire concept of intellectual property from our societies. it is utterly destructive to the free flow of culture and ideas and does NOT do what it purports to do: protect creators. no, it empowers litigious rent-seeking parasites. so much wasted money energy and time
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Apparently, the catchy new name they've settled on is 'Windows 8 style UI'
Well, it was either that, or "Microsoft Office Live Style UI Media Center Edition for Windows Genuine Advantage".
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Window Pain
Watch those corners
No, Metro was supposed to be more than e.g the "Chicago" codename for Windows 95. Microsoft promotional materials showed photos of the New York subway signs to illustrate the big bold fonts and clutter-free design they were after.
Microsoft Windows(tm) User Interface 8 Series, Build 6292, Service Pack 2a
They have not settled on this name, this is a temporary form to address what was known as Metro until a new name is been found, probably because there is an impending lawsuit in the works.
From TFA:
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
I wonder if any Van Halen fans at MS pushed for "UI812".
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
I don't believe that this is the real reason Microsoft is changing the branding. If they thought it was valuable enough to keep, they would fight for it. But among tech-savvy users, Metro has become a punchline and a negative brand, just like Vista. I smell another Mojave coming up.
This search seems to tell a different story: http://www.google.com/?q=site%3Amicrosoft.com+metro
793,000 results.
Will take them a few days to clean that up.
You forgot to sign your post:
--Smug Slashdotter who is 35 years old but emotionally about 15
I don't think he forgto, more that he assumed it would be redundant statement of the entirely bleeding obvious.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
We've got that in Britain too: http://www.metro.co.uk/ I think it's an off-shoot of the Daily Mail, so I always avoid reading it and use it to line my guinea pig's cage. Still, it's worth what you pay for it.
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
Here are some other alternatives:
HiggledyPiggledy 2.0
Hunt and Poke: Home Edition
Explosive Nostril Overlayer
Thumbgasm
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
They've been calling it Metro for quite a while, including on all that stuff put out about Windows Phone 7. You know WP7, that phone OS of theirs that's in production. If codenames really don't stick around once its in production, then how do they explain that?
The truth here is that Windows 8 has been poorly received, and Metro is the reason why. Too many people hate it on the desktop. In an attempt to change the conversation they're going to change the name and hope that the negative buzz doesn't carry over.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
They should have call it how it looks like: Sokoban
Bob.
Hey, at least MS probably still owns the trademark.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Windows is the operating system of just about EVERYBODY. Including people who may be conservative and even provincial. My guess is that a marketing person at Microsoft finally got heard and they decided to lose the name "Metro" after learning it was too urban and possibly "gay" aka "threatening" for some folks.
It's not cool at all; however, Sagan overreacted, and deserves to be laughed at for such. Even great men are not perfect. Sagan is my personal hero, and this episode humanises him to me.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
He just wanted thousands of dollars...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
In Paris, the Metro is the transportation's network, and by extension the name of the stations and of the trains.
The stations smell like piss, with beggars and tramps everywhere (and yes, I'm french).
Once there is a small problem on a line, all the traffic is slowed down.
The trains almost always are late, especially when the weather is hot.
Finally, the parisians always try to force their way in the train, even though it's full.
Why they chose this name is beyond me !
I just haven't been able to see a difference between Vista & Windows 7, yet one is reviled and one is revered.
So, changing the name and nothing else may be a good move - people seem guilible.
The UI formerly known as Metro
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
My guess is that the demand for compensation came in from someone's attorneys to Microsoft's headquarters and Microsoft jumped at the excuse political opportunity to change the name. Backed by Metro being hard to trademark as it's used by municipalities worldwide for mass transit and the name change was a shoe in from the legal side.
Marketing had a problem in that Metro already had a god awful reputation in the market. Enterprises won't touch Windows 8 because Microsoft forces the Metro interface as the default interface. They are simply trying to soften the blow of forcing the world to use the Metro interface by default whether they want to or not.
Think about it, they are betting one of the worlds largest companies on an interface that is universally loathed if your not on a tablet. This may well be the largest bet in history.
Explain to a John Doe in what regard Windows 8 RT differs from Windows 8.
What's a Surface now? The multitouch tabletop hardware + software? Not anymore, now it's the tablet-netbook hybrid.
Even if they come up with a new name after the sleek marketing speak emanating from "Windows 8-style UI", it'll still cause confusion and introduce clutter for people looking up "Metro". Easily avoidable if only they had done their homework.
To those claiming it was just a codename and was never meant to be used publicly: A certain S.B. disagrees.
I suggest "TOMBSTONE".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
> Apparently, the catchy new name they've settled on is 'Windows 8 style UI'
I'm no Microsoft fan, but TFS is wrong. Both linked articles aren't that long, so it's not hard to find what they've actually said. Microsoft has dropped "Metro" and is looking for a new name. Until they figure out a new name, they have asked developers to stop referring to the interface as "Metro" and use "Windows 8 style UI" instead. But the point is, Microsoft has not settled on this as a new name.
From the BBC article:
Instead of Metro, Microsoft has told developers to simply refer to the blocky display as a "Windows 8 style UI" for the time being.
From the Verge article:
Until then, employees have been advised to refer to the Metro style user interface as the "Windows 8 style UI."
How about "Windows Phone 8 Phone Graphical GUI Interface for Phones." If it's not already taken.
Take off every Sig. For great justice.
Despite corporations seeing it as "property" it has a useful purpose, to keep the consumer from getting ripped off. Otherwise, you could by an expensive Snap-On tool, only to find out it's a cheap pot metal knock-off legally using the Snap-On name. The way it is now, Snap-On will go after the offender in order to protect its name, which protects us, the consumer.
Microsoft(c) Windows(tm) Phone Experience PE Live 2012 - Home Professional Extreme, Version 3.0 (SP 4.32.1.192)
"trademark dispute with Metro AG, a German retail giant."
And they're just a retailer, not a software and hardware company, so there would be no real confusion to any half-assed consumer.
Therefore there is no trademark dispute. Microsoft is avoiding this lawsuit even though they're in the right, for once.
I wonder why they'd avoid this?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
"Windows 8 style UI"
shall become known as "Wait-style UI" or "Weight-style UI"
The code name Metro doesn't really tell us anything,
Yes it does. They have been using Metro with WP7 since launch.
It describes an interface generally composed of tiles, where more content exists to one side or the other and that content is visually truncated at start so as to reveal you need to scroll to see more.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
MS Edsel.
Or perhaps Windows Pinto . Same kind of late '70's, clunky design, bad color pallet choices. I mean, it's bound to explode in the ass-end eventually, right?
~Just as a thing fails if it lacks a kernel, so too it fails if it lacks a skin. ~ Rumi, Discourses
Innovation by copying.
I suggest they rename it MeToo
This is a wonderous name as it also harkens back to those halcyon days before XP, as in
ME 2.0
Cryonics - Keep cool and carry on.
Someone has already thought to use the name Metro for a company who would have thought?
Seriously though there is a crap load of "Metro" companies that I know of:
LA Metro (among others)
Metro PCS
Metro a grocery chain in Toronto area
Metro in Germany
Metro (a collection of urban newspapers in Canada (and probably elsewhere))
I realise the law is ridiculous but it seems silly that you could get sued for a name of feature of a product because someone's regional company has the same name. I'm pretty sure someone has a company named Windows.
I propose "Trainwreck".
The theme is still consistent with the original name, but with... a twist. YEEEEEEAAAHHH