theyarecomingforyou, on 04 June 2012 - 11:11, said:
To be fair there are plenty of people like myself who are somewhere in the middle. I'm looking forward to Windows 8 and will likely be upgrading but I am highly critical of some of the design decisions, especially the changes to multi-monitor support in the RP. There is so much potential but there are so many inconsistencies and annoyances. For instance, why when you side-pin a Metro app does it leave your desktop blank? Clicking takes you back to the Start screen and hides your app, then clicking the desktop tile brings back both the desktop and the app.
I've noticed this behaviour when you only have a single app open and snap it and agree that it feels weird. The alternative would be to have the Start screen filling the remaining space on the screen but I think they've decided that the Start screen should always be full screen. I can kind of understand why they've done it the way have but it does feel clumsy.
theyarecomingforyou, on 04 June 2012 - 11:11, said:
Microsoft's problem is how it deals with the traditional desktop user with a mouse and keyboard. The assumption should be that the desktop is the default view, both on logging into Windows and when launching apps; the opposite should be true for tablet users. On the desktop the start screen should be used for launching apps. That way when you side-snap a Metro app the desktop would appear alongside it. I have no problem with Metro apps but you're never going to get a feature comparable version of Photoshop or Cubase in Metro - it cannot replace the role of the traditional desktop. But this is Win7 all over again. Microsoft implemented the superbar for pinning apps but failed in the implementation of window grouping. With an app with just one window you can click on the taskbar button to restore it, yet when you add more windows rather than default to the last used window - as would be expected - it instead brings up a preview screen. And this was especially problematic in apps like Live Messenger and Skype which produce "fake" windows in order to deal with remaining logged in - it was a complete bodge.
I agree that there will never be Metro equivalents of the full versions of productivity apps like Photoshop and that's why the desktop remains. Remember though that the majority of people don't use these kinds of apps or only use them rarely. Most people only use their computers to access the internet, send the occasional email and sometimes listen to music or look at pictures. Those users could very easily stick to using Metro-based apps and never use the desktop again.
For everyone else, as I've said elsewhere, I think MS should add an option to boot to the desktop by default. They could bury it as a group policy setting if necessary but it would appease those users who spend most of their time using productivity applications on the desktop and don't see the need for Metro-based apps.
theyarecomingforyou, on 04 June 2012 - 11:11, said:
Windows 8 brings a lot to the table but there are plenty of legitimate concerns that simply haven't been addressed. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the criticism is overly emotional, infantile and wildly hysterical but that shouldn't mask the legitimate concerns that people have. I expect it won't be until Windows 9 that Microsoft really polishes out issues and even then - like the remaining Win7 issues - I'm not hopeful some of the biggest annoyances will be addressed.
I agree, most of the complaints probably won't be addressed. Of course, the main one comes from people who absolutely refuse to accept the Start screen and they will never be satisfied - the Start menu won't be returning and that's the way it should be. The smaller usability issues like the ones you described above could be addressed though and it would be nice if Microsoft did something about them. We've already seen them try to improve problems with hot corner support on multi-monitor setups so there may be some hope but I wouldn't put any money on it for now.
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