Ampfixer: Microsoft says it will be putting out a more traditional looking version this year. 


It's code name is Windows Blue, its expected to be released later this year. 

Apparently MS has received a lot of feedback along with a lot of mix reactions. To be fair, W8 being a major change will take time to refine it. 

I guess the tough part is figuring out all the right balances of all features and the GUI that will be used on various different devices (Desktop, Laptops, Tablets and such) but 'security' is also a top priority. MS claims that this new update (W/Blue) will be the most important one they have ever done.  


I just came across this news article Here

paulo

Maybe I'm missing something here, but the desktop is still there just as it always was if you prefer to work that way. Mine still looks identical my previous one, as my intial reaction was to try and make evrything like it used to be, though I find myself hardly using it now . I also don't understand why amyone would be staring at the metro screen for long periods - it's just a big start button so that you can navigate to what you really want to do isn't it ?  I don't know how toggling between open apps works on a desktop mouse, but on my laptop it's a simple swipe of the mouse and to close and open app is just a question of pointing the mouse anywhere along the top of the screen and click/dragging it down to the taskbar and it closes. Seems quite simple to me.
 
I'm not trying to be antagonostic or anything here, just don't understand some of your issues.

+1     Like several here I have many many years of experience of different OS's and for many years DOS was the only way to interact with a PC with no mouse, decent graphics or touch in sight.  As I recall it was Apple's 'Lisa' that changed all that.  


For me, W8's Metro I/F doesn't get in the way of productivity at all.  I have an X2 tile on the metro screen and clicking it drops to exactly the same i/f of X2 that I used  under W7.  I don't have a touch screen so X2 works exactly the same as it did before.  The 'ALT+TAB' keystroke still works to switch between open apps/programs as does 'ALT+F4' to close them.  WIN+TAB displays a list of open apps/programs to switch between.  All the programs that would be on the start menu are accessible via the metro screen as are My Documents, Devices and printers etc.   Any legacy software can be installed via the Desktop.

The integration of other apps such as e-mail, photos, facebook etc. are really slick and make using them very intuitive, but of no value if your DAW PC is not connected to the internet of course!


It may be my imagination but performance seems much 'snappier' even though it's basically the same 'engine' under the hood, and any app/program/live tile that may be using system resources can be quickly turned off, permanently if required, just as it could in W7.  


The more I use W8 the more I am liking it.

LordElpus

All the programs that would be on the start menu are accessible via the metro screen as are My Documents, Devices and printers etc. 

True, they are available.

If you're willing to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll to get to them.

The truth is the Start Menu and Task Bar are very efficient ways to get to things quickly, particularly with nested folders in the Start Menu and the ability to pin documents as well as programs to the Task Bar (starting in W7) - everything is right there and compact and you don't have to move the mouse a mile to get to anything.

But I think one of the main problems is whether or not Metro is "nice" or "attractive" or "usable" or whatever, many people don't want to have to waste time learning a %#*&&@#*$ new interface when they already know the old one, which already worked very, very well for them. 


I actually like the idea of one OS that could work well on tablets as well as conventional machines, but I think they made a mistake of compromising the conventional interface too much in the process. But again, installing Classic Shell fixes most of that.

drewfx1

 

True, they are available.

If you're willing to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll to get to them.

how difficult is it to hit the windows key and type the first 4 or 5 letters of the program you want?
that's how easy it is in windows 8. :)

drewfx1

Dragging from the top edge of the screen to the bottom shuts down a Metro app.

Thanks for that. Learned something.
 
BTW, I recently bought a tablet that's about as powerful as a decent laptop was a year ago. It came with win 8 and after using it for a month I'm quite comfortable with it for office work. Yet my DAW will remain win7 for quite a while longer (because I can't find any reason to fiddle with a properly working system)
 
Yet, Office 2013 is a totally different story. It sucks big time (especially the licensing model that's just a rip off), and for anybody doing serious work, it's ridiculous. It's just another step backward (like 2010 and 2007 were) ... considering what you could do with e.g. Excel 2003, ten years later 64 bit gave you many more cells, but that's about it. The rest is an unstable, resource-intensive bean-counters program for writing invoices, but not the powerful engineering engine that it used to be If Sonar would be crashing only a 1/10 of the time Excel crashes or hangs, I would have thrown it out a long time ago, yet with MS Office you can't ...
 
 
 
 

@paulo - Indeed you are missing something.

I clearly stated I am using classic shell to "repair" the menu structure. That is one thing that should not have to be done if Microsoft did not forced the Metro screen upon the user, but gave the user an choice.

And no - as a result of the above I'm not staring at the metro screen, as you could have read in my post.

And lastly - I also said it was a matter of personal taste. I just do not like that metro stuff. It just should not be present/forced on a workstation/PC (a tablet is another matter). I do not like the work-flow that it generates as a result. I also said I do not like the windows decorations and the lost of "Air". As said - it's just a matter of personal taste. And taste is important for me (as being a graphic artist too). I never said Windows 8 is not usable, but only that I do not like it in it's present form! That's my opinion (as I also stated) and I really hope I am allowed to have one.

@fireberd - ah 3.12. Good memory's at that one. Installing that version was my first bigger IT job. No too long after that the 4.2 version came out, and that was big improvement (although 3.12 stayed strong in many places, and not everyone agreed with that). I also liked the ZEN suite. That was a real convenient piece of software ;-).

My last job (before I decided to become a free-lancer) was in a mixed environment where Netware, Windows and UNIX servers had to be "tied together". There also was a big mainframe running, but luckily we only had to maintain the client software for that one. 

chuckebaby

drewfx1

 

True, they are available.

If you're willing to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll to get to them.

how difficult is it to hit the windows key and type the first 4 or 5 letters of the program you want?
that's how easy it is in windows 8. :)

I know that, but it depends. It's difficult if you can't quite remember a rarely used program's name, or if you want to see what you've got installed on this particular machine. 

The point is that the Start Menu/Task Bar can be somewhere between a little and a lot better than the Metro way, depending on what you're doing. It's not that Metro is terrible or unusable, it's that, in addition to being something new to learn, it's worse than the existing way for some things. Win8/Metro tried to "fix" a problem for non-touch users that didn't exist and tries to force you to do things a new way for reasons that are for MS's benefit, not the user's.

Which was not appreciated by many, and this is what MS apparently have figured out so they will likely just put the Start Menu back. This is a good thing for users who haven't installed Classic Shell, as they can then use and take advantage of either or both UI's. 

drewfx1

LordElpus

All the programs that would be on the start menu are accessible via the metro screen as are My Documents, Devices and printers etc. 

True, they are available.

If you're willing to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll to get to them. 

The truth is the Start Menu and Task Bar are very efficient ways to get to things quickly, particularly with nested folders in the Start Menu and the ability to pin documents as well as programs to the Task Bar (starting in W7) - everything is right there and compact and you don't have to move the mouse a mile to get to anything.

But I think one of the main problems is whether or not Metro is "nice" or "attractive" or "usable" or whatever, many people don't want to have to waste time learning a %#*&&@#*$ new interface when they already know the old one, which already worked very, very well for them. 

I actually like the idea of one OS that could work well on tablets as well as conventional machines, but I think they made a mistake of compromising the conventional interface too much in the process. But again, installing Classic Shell fixes most of that.

I hear you :-)  I agree it was a pain to scroll until I realised I could create a tile on the start screen of all the programs I use regularly, as well as documents, just like on the Start Menu, Task Bar or shortcut on the desktop.  I guess MS thought this could replace the Start Menu but it does seem illogical to give users the choice of the traditional desktop as well as Metro but then take away the Start Menu.


I also agree the Metro Interface is a matter of taste and it's not to everyone's liking, but the 'old' interface is still there, just not the Start Menu.  I too have Classic Shell installed but I find I don't use it as much as I thought I would or as much as I used to, but who am I?  It looks like with Windows Blue you will get your wish and most people will be happy.

Anther tip. You can create tile groups and name them. For example audio or office. Then its easy to drag the tiles into the name group. 

The Start button is coming back in "Blue" but from the reports I've seen it will not be a complete restoration and have all the features that were in Win 7 or that you can get with add ons such as "Start8".

Fom one report:

"...the button will act as a method to simply access the Start Screen, and will not include the traditional Start Menu. The button is said to look near-identical to the existing Windows flag used in the Charm bar."