Microsoft should stick to its guns and keep the Start button gone

Op-ed: If Redmond wants Metro apps to succeed, it needs education, not capitulation.

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[Mitlov]

tpg0007[/url]":txx5r49c]What I don't understand is why MS felt it was necessary to force Metro onto traditional desktop users? Why can't they just treat it as a separate OS? This freakish unification is not doing anyone favors. It's like some execs at Redmond really got taken in by all the desktop is dying talk of doom and panicked at doing whatever they can to make people forget there is a desktop, and failing spectacularly.

There's a lot to like about Windows 8 desktop like improved copy dialog, but any time I've to deal with Metro with just mouse/keyboard it just felt like getting punched in the nuts periodically while trying to have a good time.

They didn't want a separate OS for tablets and PCs because that creates a world where tablets and PCs are two separate worlds, where never the twain shall meet. PC OEMs are jumping at the idea of creating convertible and hybrid devices of all sorts of different form factors, and as the owner of one (a Vaio Duo 11), I think the genre-bending is fantastic.

Microsoft stumbled with the execution with parts of 8.0 for BOTH traditional PC users and tablet users. Many of those stumbles they'll be correcting in 8.1. But the idea of a hybrid PC/tablet OS, instead of two separate OSes, is a sound one.

 

[Mitlov]

Toolbars are always present on the desktop and hidden until you swipe in Metro. Take tabs in IE10, for example; the tabs are always visible on the desktop but you need to swipe from the top to see them in Metro.

Well, the start button is like that. Always present on the desktop in the bottom-left, visible in metro on the bottom-left when you swipe from the left (or swipe-half-in-then-out under default settings).

So I don't think the inconsistency in UI is as glaring as the author states. It's always in the same corner, and whether or not it needs to be swiped to be shown is consistent with the overall UI differences between desktop and metro.