On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 4:11 AM, Gabriel Pettier <gabriel.pett...@gmail.com> wrote: >... > For now, about everyone seems to hate metro, it was probably a very bad idea > from them, i don't think we should copy it in any way… useful or not, people > love having a deskop.
We travel in different worlds. I've seen different people using Metro UIs and they all like them. There is still a desktop in Windows 8. It's scarcely different from that of Windows 7. The Start screen, which has replaced the Start menu, is basically Microsoft's version of Apple's Mac OS X Mission Control, Dashboard, Launchpad, and Notification center all rolled into one; or of Ubuntu Unity's Dash, Indicators, and Launchers; or whatever the transient overlaying overview of GNOME 3 is. The big difference in Metro (or whatever they choose to call it) looks to be that they will have more apps that are expected to run full-screen with far less chrome. Apple guidelines may also be pushing full-screen; I haven't looked lately. GNOME 3 is sort of doing this with their series of poorly named applications, but let me just say I've not been impressed by what I've seen. I'm not sure about this, but I think Microsoft is actually making the Start screen into the starting screen for computer interaction. I think the computer is supposed to go there when you log in or unlock the screen. That with a bit of extra hardware makes for some interesting things. I suspect that some of the objections to the Start screen in Windows 8 comes from how a menu feels different from a full-screen overlay. Because it has to cover so much area, the overlay "feels" heavier, although from using it I have to say that it only looks like it will feel that way when you see screenshots of it. Actually using it feel just as "light" as using a menu, if not lighter because it's less cramped. More important for Microsoft than any particular design choice is that they've actually started making design choices. They are encouraging the same attention to design that has long be de rigueur on a Mac. I think we tried to do this with GNOME 2, but were severely hampered by the general chaos of open source development and the number of assumptions about how things have to be. GNOME and KDE have taken so much mindshare now that the interesting, more experimental projects have been starved. Maybe I just miss the late 1990's. Cheers. -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~unity-design Post to : unity-design@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~unity-design More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
