UKC

If you've moved to Windows 8, what do you think of the Metro interface (or whatever MS have now been forced to call it)?

A good use of screen estate?

Are the live tiles too much or distracting?

Is it better on a tablet/phone (or with touch screen input) than on a desktop?

I've only had a quick play around with it whilst trying not to attract the attention of the sales numpties but I do like the look of it and it seems like Microsoft have taken a big leap forward in UI.

ALC

FIn reply to a lakeland climber:

Definitely better on a tablet, although faster and better battery life on my laptop. UI seems a bit unfinished on a conventional p.c. I live in Chrome so no problem.


D

In reply to a lakeland climber:

Not a huge fan so far - seems very tablet/smartphone orientated.

In reply to a lakeland climber: Loathe it! Cant get on with it at all. Thinking of installing Mint.

In reply to ring ouzel:

More and more people are getting used to non-microsoft operating systems. And mint does look. Its just that I can't pull myself away from Win7 on my desktop.

In reply to The Lemming: Win 7 wasn't too bad. I use it at work. But Win 8 with those stupid tiles - arrrgh! Safe to say not a fan and now looking at alternatives.

In reply to a lakeland climber:

"Modern UI"


They are equivalent to the start menu, mostly your focus is on what you are choosing from the start menu when you are using it so may as well be full screen.


Similar to above. I don't find them distracting but don't spend very long looking at them. It might be different on a tablet. All the non-Modern UI programs look a bit rubbish alongside the nice new tiles.


Yes. I saw a surface RT having wandered across to the Outdoor show from the boat show last month.


Yes, but they could do with more apps being in the app store. The halfway house because "desktop" apps and metro apps is a bit awkward but not fatal.

The whole OS seems quicker than W7.

In reply to Swig:

I'm currently on a Mac at home so it's a purely rhetorical question. Basically I skipped Vista and Win7. I don't think I've ever touched a Vista machine so can't comment on that. Used my wife's Win7 laptop and really don't get on with it.

The question really wasn't about using Win8 as an OS but more about the interface and whether it works or not. I appreciate that there's a paradigm shift, particularly in how programs are managed, but it seems as if the grid of icons and long menus are becoming a thing of the past.

Most OSs are now about information management and presentation: iOS doesn't have the concept of a user accessible file system for example - each program handles its data in the manner it sees fit; OS X and Linux have Spotlight (or similar) which maintain a database of what's on the system so you can just search for "Letter to uncle Joe" without bothering about exactly where the file is. It seems to me that the Metro UI/ Modern UI is another part of that.

ALC

In reply to The Lemming:

yep, i use mint on a machine that's hooked into my TV, but my desktop runs win7, can't justyfy a MAC and i use adobe CS5 for various things, so it's win7 for me

In reply to a lakeland climber:
Windows 8 is better than 7 in almost every respect. Having used it for several months, I'm of the opinion that the Start Screen is MUCH better than the old Start Menu (which I never used).

However, it is a much better experience on a touchscreen monitor. Switching between apps is as simple as a swipe from the left of the screen. Everything's just a lot quicker with Windows 8 (except switching the computer off, ironically!)

In reply to a lakeland climber:

I like Win8. I don't make use of the tiles screen, other than to launch applications and spend most of my time in the desktop. It's an improvement - performance-wise - on Win7.