Microsoft Making Waves With Tile-Based Interface in Windows 8

[syltman]

All desktop environments seem to move to more tablet friendly interfaces, gnome 3, unity, mac and now this. And there's nothing wrong with it tbh. I think everyone are a bit too scared of new technology.

What I just worry about is if gaming moves completely to tablets..

Also Microsoft need to increase their reputation or they will just keep sinking

 

[pakker]

Dear MS, I am currently using a real computer with your OS on, I really much like my PROGRAMS. Can we pretty please keep smartphone interfaces on.. Smartphones. I really hope there will be an option to switch that ugly (yes, it is ugly) tile crap off and use a normal desktop. My browser gives me easy access to all the pages i visit frequently, I don't use crappy apps on my computer.. Gah.. This is really a step not only in the wrong direction, but over the cliff into a lavapit.

 

[Kevon Huggins]

Windows 8
Windows idiot proof edition
really touchscreen centered really

 

[gring]

Wow, I just... cant even... express... how... stupid... UGGGGHHHEERRRRMFFFF!!!

Seriously... WHAT?!

How is this even remotely improved? Now I have to do everything by touching my monitor? OH WAIT, ILL NEED TO BUY A NEW TOUCH MONITOR FIRST, THEN BUY A $400 VERSION OF WINDOWS 8? YEAH FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!

I just can't see how this makes file management easier, or even close to the same. ITS CALLED "WINDOWS" FOR A REASON, NOT "WANNABE GIANT SMARTPHONE", that way I can move files around with ease, and not want to end up cutting myself.

I've used an ipad, which is what this is trying to emulate. And for SUPER BASIC stuff its great, but for anything past that its just a nightmare and makes me want to throw it into traffic.

RAGE doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about this.

Oh, and I find it hilarious that they disable comments and the like/dislike feature this time, otherwise we might have another "future of PC gaming" incident again.

screw you microsoft, at least make this shit optional.

 

[DethKid]

i just dont like it...

it seems to have made things way too complicated...

everything is spread over like 6 screens worth of realestate..

and im not sure how well it will transfer to pcs that dont have touchscreen monitors....

ugh...and im sorry...it look ugly...i dont want some pastel coloured collage of my shit greeting me everytime i turn on my computer..

it looks like it is an updated version of Windows Media Centre...which i hated because it was buggy as....couldnt stream anything across a LAN, and even the menus would stall...blegh

I'm not even a PC purist...i love macs and iphones, this just looks crap

sorry

 

[shaderkul]

Looks like a gimmick to me. Have u ever tried using a program like 3d studio Max on a touch screen interface?

 

[Metal Brother]

This story is so Fail, that video is from Windows 8 mobile.

Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft, although I'm not involved with the Windows team. The only information I have about Windows 8 is what I've gotten through public channels. Any opinions shared here are mine and mine alone.

No. This is the next version of "real" Windows. There's an even better video here as well, including an interview with Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division: http://www.codenamewindows.com/?p=1802

One point that comes through loud and clear in this video (which isn't in the Escapist article or the demo video it uses) is that the new "smart tile" UI is optional. People who want to do things the old way can continue to do so. It is also very clear (and this isn't stated clearly in the demo video in this thread, which is possibly why people here keep mentioning it) is that the new UI targets the "slate" form factor, similar to the iPad. For this type of device the traditional Windows UI isn't very effective. But imagine having a single device that works as a slate (and can be touched and typed on-screen) or as a PC (with a mouse and keyboard attached) and can run both the new-style applications shown in this video and any Windows application (including all the PC games you know and love) as well.

My problem with the iPad and devices like it is that they seem like oversized phones (without the phone) and yet they cost more than a "real" computer. Windows 8 looks to me like it is going to bring the best of both worlds together...

 

[gyroscopeboy]

Microsoft has the problem of waaay too big a target audience...there's the hardcore tinkerers (pretty much everyone here it seems) and then there's the Mom & Pops..who get sold whatever the salesperson gives them and have a hard time understanding the current Windows UI...they can't win whatever they do!

 

[Callate]

Y'know, the one thing I solidly dislike about Windows 7 and the various applications designed for it is having to dig through all the so-called "ease of use" and "simplification" nonsense just to find things like the File and Options menus.

These redesigns inevitably seem based on the idea that some MS user interface engineer has a better idea how things "should" be done than I do so they'll just make the typical user do things that way be default and hide the ways of changing them (or changing them back) so they don't confuse the poor simple folk.

 

[SovietX]

They reasons are to simplify computing. If you dont know how to use a computer, theres something wrong with you. Dont fix what isn't broken. My desktop is simple right now. Games on the left, Applications on the right and misc files in the middle. I dont need giant squares of crap taking up my whole screen being retarded.

Me thinks i'll have to hang onto my W7 Boot disc.

 

[Callate]

If Microsoft wants to improve my user experience, they could try making an OS that doesn't use up half-again as much system resources as the previous version to serve up a bunch of useless chrome, a media player that doesn't take thirty seconds of chasing its own tail to play a stupid MP3 file, and a web browser that doesn't put a "delete shortcut" button next to the "open history" button and doesn't keep putting local folders in the address bar for no conceivable reason.

 

[Traun]

This is clunky and unintuitive. I hope they have 98(oh please do)/XP/Vista theme as an option. I work with many files, located in many folders in many directories, I can't be bothered to go through 200 apps before reaching what I need.

 

[Smerf]

someone needs to somehow convince windows that most of its ideas are bad,vista was horrible, 7 was bloated (but better then vista) and this looks like crap. their last good idea was xp.
makes me glad i use linux.

 

[darksakul]

Microsoft Bob all over again

 

[keideki]

Psh, I already had a topic up about this.....

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

There's always Linux!