“To further Microsoft's attempt at simplification and the removal of distractions, buttons have had a visual update, with the removal of gradients and glows and again, squaring off of the edges”

Talk about elephants in the room Metro seems like one big distraction to me!

I haven't properly tried the Windows 8 OS yet. Last time I did I managed to catch a virus even with AV software running and it made me to delete some core files. All system went belly up. Never mind..
I think Aero was just a.. well bubble. You can still see transparency in “Start menu” tray (if you can still call it Start menu). So it seems it's going to be the same.
I don't like the tiles interface though and I hope that's just a touch screen gimmick. Though who knows.. It depends on large user group who might go either way. It's all preferences though and I hope MS will understand it by keeping the Start button and My Computer on the Desktop.

I've got mixed feelings on Aero. On my home PC I think the transparency works well, and it does look quite stylish.

On my works PC it's a different matter - there's too many programs (e.g. quite a few Java-based GUI's, NX client, etc) that force Windows7 to drop out of Aero to the “Basic” mode. And after a while that switching Aero-Basic and back again as you launch and exit non-compatible programs does get a bit wearing. :(

That said, my Ubuntu box loses all it's visual tweaks when I'm NX'd into it (like now) so I can understand MS wanting to drop the “unnecessary” visual tweaks in return for a bit more platform compatibility.

It does seem like the only focus of Win8 is reducing overhead on lower spec hardware. Have they not noticed Apple's all about the shiny UI? At least I guess it means Win8 will fly on a PC - just hoping they get the power off fixed so you can do it with a mouse without some magical pixel being hovered over by the cursor…

I'm sure it will be back in with themes soon after release.

surely this is about battery life?

also, the gloss effect on buttons and icons is now really rather dated, an example of something I just find but ugly is OSX windowing system, the action glyphs for instance are somewhat of a throwback to a early 2000 idea of what looks pretty.

I kind of like the minamilist look, but wounder how much customisation is been lost!

Squaring off of windows/buttons is fine, losing ‘glow’ effects is fine, but the loss of transparent windows is too much of a step backwards for me. The windows in the screenshot provided just look plain ugly.

Why not just make it an option for you to turn on/off and simply out of the box have it set to off so users who can't run AERO successfully don't complain. Regardless I doubt it will be sorely missed as when it was first introduced I really didn't care much for it and it didn't significantly improve my viewing experience. I'm sure over time we'll all get used to it like it's the norm again.

I quite like it but I agree with Dark Night, why do they have to force this onto users? It's so simple to just add the option to turn it on or off. This is what annoys me about Microsoft, instead of producing interesting new features and giving people the option to use them they force you to do so and they wonder why people get annoyed.

So no more window decorations.
No more start menu.
No more desktop-centric UI.
No more productive work.
No more DVD playback.

Are Microsoft planning to pay people to use this OS? Surely no sane person would pay for having a more useless OS.

Why can't they just put in an option to disable the ‘pretty’ elements if you want to? I happen to like the flashy, shiny look of Windows 7, and think the new look is boring, flat and dull…

I never liked Apple stuff in general, but I have to say their GUI looks great…

tickleonthetum
Why can't they just put in an option to disable the ‘pretty’ elements if you want to? I happen to like the flashy, shiny look of Windows 7, and think the new look is boring, flat and dull…

Maybe since they're channelling the meme of “it is ain't broke, fix it anyway” perhaps they're also going to harken back to Window95 and introduce an optional “Plus” pack. In which case, perhaps Aero will be put in there.

I've gone from merely disliking Metro to actively hating it. Serves me right for thinking that Unity was the nadir of modern OS UI development.

Call me a Luddite but I say “function over style, please”. Give me familiarity, clarity and efficient use of screen space any day. In other words, as long as I can revert any new Windows to look like Win 2000 then I can be a happy bunny. ;o)

Urgh..I have traditionally had a lot of faith in MS and their UI decisions. Most of them initially scream “ewww thats horrible”, but turn out OK in the end (Case in point: the ribbon). This however just seems like a slap in the face to those of us who really like having pretty, good looking buttons/windows/etc. This OS is going to be ran on many high end machines, not just on tablets/tablets/touchscreens, and it needs to be designed well for both, that much is key.

Fine remove Aero for tablets/touch screens, provide the option of having glow-less buttons (which are not required with a touch screens, but are incredibly useful with a mouse), remove the pretty bevelled edges, remove the incredibly useful transparency..but make it an OPTION. These changes don't strike me as being too big as to cause MS a problem with themeing - so whats the problem with having two themes?

This is very much a mountain out of a molehill, but it feels like a very big backwards step, almost like MS have given up on competitng with OSX on the UI front and we're heading back to practicality/function over looks. (Love or hate OSX and its practicality - it's full of pretty bits of the UI that Windows doesn't come close to)

This whole argument then falls flat on it's face when you consider all the effort they have put into Metro, albeit with very average results.

So summary being..lets wait and see what the final result is, very hard to judge until we get to see it.

What do our readers think? Is the loss of Aero for the sake of simplicity and/or performance a good thing?

This reader thinks Win 8 is looking less appealing by the day, or at least, by the announcement.

Personally, I couldn't give a hoot about what appears to be a strategic objective, which is about a common look/feel from everything from mega-power games machines to mobile phones. I quite like Aero. It may suck down some performance power, but not to the point that it adversely affects anything else I do in a meaningful way.

And besides, I fully agree with several posters above that have said, basically, give users the choice to enable it or not. Windows 8 is going to have to be awfully damn good in some other ways (that I haven't yet noticed) to get me to spring for an upgrade fee. Right now, W7 is doing everything I need, and I don't see any reason to change up …. and several reasons not to.

I guess it'll mean more traffic @ Windowblinds at least: http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/

I never really understood the need to use third party software to ‘customize’ the desktop, but maybe Windows 8 will change my mind…

Bling doesnt make you work any faster.

Still confused because since it is in the beta release, it means they have wasted all that time implementing it! They may aswell just put in a simile on or off… you know much like we can on windows 7? I like the minimalistic view but to really already have some nice designs implemented and then just say no remove that crap we cant handle it, is a slap in the face!.

One more reason to not to upgrade to Win8

I quite like Aero, although I can live without it - but this just seems like yet another step back with Windows 8. I really hope it bombs, as they seem to be going in completely the wrong direction to me.

abaxas
Bling doesnt make you work any faster.

True, it doesn't make you more productive - but you've got to make a distinction between needless “twiddles” and aspects that add to the utility of the UI. Take for example transparent windows - sure for some it's a needless tweak, but if you're able to see an error dialog that's popped under a window (I've had it happen) then it becomes useful.

What worries me is that we're seeing an unsuitable UI forced Stalin-like across the board. Standards are good, but you can take them too far and create something that looks like it was designed in North Korea.

Are they actually pulling Aero, or just the transparent windows?

Aero Snap for instance is a fantastic feature.

Currently running the Windows 8 Consumer Preview that has Aero. I must admit that I won't really miss it but since this version has it why can't they provide the option to enable it if you want? Seems stupid not to.

Noxvayl
Currently running the Windows 8 Consumer Preview that has Aero. I must admit that I won't really miss it but since this version has it why can't they provide the option to enable it if you want? Seems stupid not to.

Because the exact same people that complain about the size of the binaries of your windows folder will be complaining.

If they don't have it on all machines programmers life is harder, we have more to ensure compatibility.

There is also more room for bugs, less code is better, less chance for security issues, less change for bsods……

It really makes sense to remove un-used features!

@ TheAnimus

That is all well and good but I probably use less than 60% of the functions Windows has installed… by the same logic they need to be removing that crap as well. Considering this is simply aesthetic I'm not convinced it poses enough of an issue for bugs in the code or for the file size of the install. My installation already takes up 16Gb, I doubt having both Aero and the plain style windows options will inflate that enough for people to notice.

Just like them removing the start menu, it'd make far more sense just to give the user an option to use it or not.
Feels like they're adding and then removing things for the sake of it to me.

Well, I won't miss that intensley irritating ‘feature’ of a pane suddenly maximising whenever I drag it near the top of the screen so I can see something underneath, or the transparency either, or the minimal menus, in fact, thinking about it…

devBunny
Call me a Luddite but I say “function over style, please”. Give me familiarity, clarity and efficient use of screen space any day. In other words, as long as I can revert any new Windows to look like Win 2000 then I can be a happy bunny. ;o)

pretty much sums up my feelings about it.

But I won't be moving to it anyway. I bypassed XP and Vista, so I expect I will bypass Windows 8 and 9.

snootyjim
Are they actually pulling Aero, or just the transparent windows?

Aero Snap for instance is a fantastic feature.

I would like to know this too. I use windows and arrow keys to automatically move windows around all the time.
Although the desktop features they mentioned the other day sounded quite good, they need to be careful they don't create another vista/me.
Windows 7 is pretty good, pretty solid and widely used. People and companies will need a good reason to upgrade and if it's not there they won't do it, the past has proved this.

What amazes me is that apparently they are still making these decisions so close to the release date.

Frankly I'm moving wholesale away from Windows except for gaming. Microsoft couldn't even get the gaming side of things right (remember the pathetic Games for Windows attempt?). It's Steam that saved the day for them there, I think.

Anyway, Linux Mint is the way forward for me, I think. Unity means that Ubuntu is out of the list of options. Windows 8 looks like a really really bad joke. I'm beginning to wonder if there is some kind of brain rot going around that only affects operating system UI designers.

Fraz
Frankly I'm moving wholesale away from Windows except for gaming. Microsoft couldn't even get the gaming side of things right (remember the pathetic Games for Windows attempt?). It's Steam that saved the day for them there, I think. Anyway, Linux Mint is the way forward for me, I think. Unity means that Ubuntu is out of the list of options. Windows 8 looks like a really really bad joke. I'm beginning to wonder if there is some kind of brain rot going around that only affects operating system UI designers.

Agree with you totally - like you my Windows box has now been downgraded to games and a very few Windows-only programs. For the mail, browsing etc an Ubuntu box is a whole lot less annoying (boots faster, closes faster, updates aren't so invasive, bsod is almost unknown). Other people (non techies too!) have had the same experience - live USB sticks are a great way to show folks Linux. :D (I use Mint for that!)

It might be off-topic, but I'd heard that Canonical had “radically” revised Unity - presumably in light of the roasting they got - and that 12.04's version is actually quite “usable”. I'll reserve judgement until I've had time to try it - although I'll freely admit that previous experiences have very much soured me on Unity. Since I installed Gnome-Do on my current (10.04LTS) Ubuntu box I'm quite keen to give this “HUD” feature a spin.

Given some of the boneheaded decisions being made by UI designers these days, I've got to wonder whether they're doing any user testing (note NOT “focus groups”!) and if so, what kind of mutants they're using for it.

Like a lot of folks here, I now can't see a convincing reason to rush out and buy Windows 8 - so unless someone's going to point out that “got to have” feature that I've somehow missed, then I'll be saving my money for Windows 9. Assuming of course that Steam for Ubuntu hasn't arrived in the meantime. ;)

12.04 unity is barely different IMO. Its ok for basic time to time usage but can be a right pain if you are using it daily.

Might give mint a go if its better.

Biscuit
12.04 unity is barely different IMO. Its ok for basic time to time usage but can be a right pain if you are using it daily.

Yes, unity is, and probably always will be, a giant pile of turd, killing the long slugged over and finally standardised xdg menu system was just beyond retarded. Thankfully, this is Linux, so you can use the package manager to install something else, gnome-session-fallback, perhaps, for a more classic gnome look and feel.

the built in ‘classic’ mode is pretty much gnome as we are used too isnt it?

Biscuit
the built in ‘classic’ mode is pretty much gnome as we are used too isnt it?

12.04 doesn't come with ‘classic’ out of the box, just Unity, and Unity 2D, but if you install gnome-session-fallback you'll get that login session option which is looks and feels like gnome 2 so corporate users wont freak out. It works well, too.

I must have installed it then… dont remember doing it rhough :innocent:

Just had a look at mint, looks really good actually.
Might have to give it a try later on.

It's a friggin mad idea. I love Aero.

Biscuit
I must have installed it then… dont remember doing it rhough :innocent:

Maybe you installed alacarte to edit menu items or something, a good few non-unity-default gnome programmes pull it in afaik.

Ubuntu doesn't have good enough support for dual screens for me to use. Moving browser windows across screens is clunky, making videos full screen is a gamble as to which screen it uses, whether it goes properly full screen or not is a different lottery all together; programs open up on either screen, can't make out why there is no default option and a setting to make it open in it's last full screen location… I haven't even mentioned anything to do with the user interface yet, this is just trying to get things to go where I want them regularly enough to be usable.

Once I turned my second monitor off all was well, everything worked great and I would actually prefer Ubuntu to Windows but I'm not getting rid of my second screen so I'm a Windows user until Linux(Ubuntu) catches up in that regard. I have to admit, though, the last time I tried to sort out dual screens on Ubuntu it just wouldn't work at all, so it is much better than before but not good enough for me to use.

At least with Linux the decisions aren't quite as bad as microsofts where you either do as they instruct or suffer, you have the option to undo the stupid changes or use a new distro that does that in Linux. Microsoft are becoming worse than Apple now, in order for any Metro app to be used you need an account and in order for apps already installed to work you have to have an account… well what if I'd like to use Google calendar instead of Microsofts and sync my computer to that? or perhaps I'd not don't want a calendar online I'd like only a local one. They are, obviously to me, trying to lock users in and I hope it backfires on them because I'm not wasting money on an OS that has half it's features locked behind a Microsoft account login screen.

GoodApollo
Just had a look at mint, looks really good actually. Might have to give it a try later on.

I've got a Mint system installed on a USB stick - and it's actually very usable (which surprised the heck out of me). I use it to give me a zero-footprint “personal” computer when I'm away on business with only the work's laptop for company.

Just been reminded of a comment I saw on a Linux forum, namely “Unity is the best argument for a Gnome fan to try KDE”. ;) (made me smile anyway)

Noxvayl
At least with Linux the decisions aren't quite as bad as microsofts where you either do as they instruct or suffer, you have the option to undo the stupid changes or use a new distro that does that in Linux. Microsoft are becoming worse than Apple now, in order for any Metro app to be used you need an account and in order for apps already installed to work you have to have an account… well what if I'd like to use Google calendar instead of Microsofts and sync my computer to that? or perhaps I'd not don't want a calendar online I'd like only a local one. They are, obviously to me, trying to lock users in and I hope it backfires on them because I'm not wasting money on an OS that has half it's features locked behind a Microsoft account login screen.

Actually that's a very good point - I didn't give it much heed at the time because I do have a Hotmail account. But now you've got me thinking - what kind of privacy invasion does this leave a Windows 8 user prone to? And that's ignoring the small matter ;) you raise - namely are you as a user going to get a “2nd class” Windows 8 ‘experience’ because you want to use something other than Microsoft's calendaring, SkyDrive, etc. Why am I as a user “encouraged” to have an online presence in order to get into my desktop PC? I suspect that “Saracen” will be giving Windows 8 a body swerve for this kind of “big brother - we know best” mentality, and I'm inclined to agree.

I haven't seen too much of it but for a few images of metro so I am going to wait to see what it brings. I have also contemplating Mint for work as I have already moved away from MS office.

For me a useful feature would be seamless integration across all devices given that you're logging into it with one ID.

pp05
For me a useful feature would be seamless integration across all devices given that you're logging into it with one ID.

That - from what I remember - was supposed to be the big deal with this. So if you'd got WinPhone and XBox then you were going to be very familiar with the UI. And I also remember reading that even some of the settings for the tiles would be shared across platforms. So sure, I can kind of see the attraction of that for some people.

Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that they'd extend that coverage to non-Microsoft devices, so we won't see a “Metro Desktop” for iOS or Android for example (as far as I know). Although there is an official Hotmail app for Android (I use it and it's very good imho), so who can tell for sure?

To me at least, this sounds that they've decided to take Apple's “walled garden” approach and expand it. Metro would NOT be a sales point for me to drop Android and buy a Windows-based smartphone. Unless Win8Phone turns out to be a sublime piece of coding of course, and Nokia manage to match it up with a fast, feature-filled phone possessing excellent build quality.