Developer Bringing Windows 8 UI to Windows 7

[raurelian]

Personally I believe that Microsoft`s tile interface is great for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). It simply works great and everything is well organized + it`s easy to use with touch interfaces. That being said, the tiles do not seem very useful in the desktop area and I do not think that MS would ever force this interface on a full blown desktop, so I do not understand why everyone is freaking out like this. Windows 8 is currently in development and there is still a long way until it comes out (if the world does`t end by then , and when it does come out, nobody is forcing anybody to ditch Windows 7, so what`s the fuss about? We need to sit tight and wait until we get our hand on a test version of the OS and them start bitching until they get it right (but personally I believe that they will get it right).

On another note, I don`t understand why any indie developer would waste his time just making a mock-up of this interface for the Windows 7, since nobody wants it on a desktop OS (not to mention that it really looks like crap compared to what Microsoft made - I understand that it`s still in alpha, but still.. it has nothing of the feel of the original tiles). I believe that this is an even greater problem - people trying to copy/paste this interface on Win7 that what MS is goind to do with Win8.

My 2 cents..

 

[bv90andy]

why bother? it's not that great and implementing it seamlessly will be impossible or way to hard to do

 

[Anaxamenes]

Good it exists over the regular operating system so I can turn it off and save resources for gaming and animation.

 

[soundping]

Other than the tablet UI what does Win8 offer for the desktop?

 

[internetlad]

unless they're shipping a touchscreen monitor with every edition of Win8 I'm gonna pass.

 

[abowlofsoda]

It says this in the article so I don't know why you think its for tablets:
With that in mind, some independent developers are working to bring that tile-based UI to Windows 7

Looks like a neat interface for the wife and kid but it looks like all those programs are running (look at the taskbar). Which would be killer on your memory.

 

[cablechewer]

In addition to the tablet market I can see this being very useful in kiosks and other limited function devices. I think it might also be wonderful for people like my parents who struggle to program their VCR clock.

The only touchscreen I currently own is in my smartphone so I won't be able to support this on any of my desktop machines. Buying new hardware to support it isn't something I am keen to do.

One thing I haven't seen anyone complain about yet - fingerprints. With my smartphone I am forever wiping the screen to keep it pristine. I would go a little nuts if I fired up a game or a movie on my nice desktop monitor and could see fingerprints on it. Pairing it with a Kinect device might be more acceptable, but that brings up another thought. How many of us really want to wave our arms around all the time as we work? When I look at my coworkers many of them are resting their arms on the edge of the desk as they control their keyboard and mouse with small wrist and finger movements. It is bad typing/mouse posture, but huge numbers of people do that. I'll bet many of them will want to keep their mouse and keyboard

 

[fayzaan]

[citation][nom]SpadeM[/nom]Sugarcoating s**t at it's finest. Just because it has 3.7 million hits doesn't mean it's a big hit. The rating/comments sections have been disabled so should I speculate on why that happened or should I take your word for it and Microsoft "invented" the coolest thing ever since sliced bread. That UI for desktop users is a piece of crap, 0 productivity benefits therefor it won't (or let's hope not) replace the tried and true desktop. I for one would much rather see WINFS spring back to life then this ... but since cloud computing is all the rage now...[/citation]

BUT ITS A HIT!! ITS A BIG HIT!! now wheres mah ice creams?!?!?

 

[noob2222]

personally tiled windows ... not for me. I purchased a large 28" monitor so I could back away from the screen to reduce eye strain, the last thing I want is for MS to force everyone to buying a touch screen monitor just to put your face back against the monitor. IMO if MS jumps on this like they say, I hope android will develop for x86 and take market share, after all its nothing more than androidized MS.

The UI is alreay somewhat in place, just not where everyone expects to find it. Ever play with windows media center? yep, its been available since windows XP.

 

[stalker7d7]

having that type of gui on a desktop is...pointless. It solves nothing.

 

[rantoc]

Why not let them have both ui's, the good familiar and this super stupidified one - the later aimed at phone and regular mac users, maybe just maybe they can handle it...

 

[Guest]

This is the equivalent of Android Honeycomb, just from the other direction. In the one case Android, mainly a mobile phone operating system, is branching out and specifically targeting its next release at tablets. In the other case Windows, mainly a desktop PC OS, is branching out and targeting ITS next release at tablets. Nobody got their shorts in a knot over Honeycomb, so why worry about Windows 8? I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that it will still be able to access the ordinary Windows desktop: "While not everyone is thrilled by the tablet inspiration, Microsoft has made it clear that the new interface simply just exists on top of the current, familiar Windows desktop." So chill, people.

 

[razor512]

touchscreen on a desktop = fail.

it is easier to accept smudges and other imperfections on a mobile device screen as you are viewing them in generally poor conditions, bad lighting, hand held where the device will be moving all of this takes your attention away from the smudges and other imperfections.

On a home computer, how enjoyable will that new bluray movie be if theres a big thumb print in the middle of the screen, or how visually awesome will that game or new adobe aftereffects layout be with smudges and dirt all over the screen.

it is just as bad as those people who buy a $500 pair of headphones, then get an expensive headphone amp and connect it to their mp3 player, then ride on the bus with it.

Yea, epica's new song sounds real great with the under the background noise of a loud bus, people honking their horns, and people talking loudly to each other and over their cellphones.

every device has it's place.

for desktop computers, it is mouse and keyboard, and possibly in the future, mind control. Touch screen takes more physical work to use, especially on something like a 22 inch screen. It also dirties the screen and increases the risk of scratches.

on a mobile device, you don't have access to a mouse or keyboard in some cases, but the small screen is perfect for a touch interface.

Adding these extra UI's and eye candy elements will only serve to slow the system down with more background processes taking valuable CPU cycles and memory, as well as slow startup speeds, as it is impossible to get around this fact, it is faster to load nothing than it is to load something. For example, windows 7 boots 2-3 seconds faster when you use the classic UI instead of the default aero crap.

 

[puggle man]

This makes unity look like a cli... good luck getting work done while being distracted by a dozen shiny tiles.
Really good for touch or tablet/smartphone though, so not all bad, as there's the standard fallback ui it would seem for those of us more serious than the casual internet/microsoft office user. I would appreciate it and consider buying a copy for my linux box if they did what ubuntu does by allowing you to change the ui at the login menu.

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]ReggieRay[/nom]Sits on top of the current Windows 7 interface, kind of like their UI sitting on DOS for years with a 640k barrier.I'll take Gnome sitting on a Linux kernel first.[/citation]

Have you ever gotten a bruise from patting yourself on the back too much?

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]puggle man[/nom]This makes unity look like a cli... good luck getting work done while being distracted by a dozen shiny tiles.Really good for touch or tablet/smartphone though, so not all bad, as there's the standard fallback ui it would seem for those of us more serious than the casual internet/microsoft office user. I would appreciate it and consider buying a copy for my linux box if they did what ubuntu does by allowing you to change the ui at the login menu.[/citation]

It's not going to replace the start menu altogether. I'm sure it's possible to switch to the old mode (hell they still let you do it for the control panel) and even disable it if you don't need it (just like the "dashboard" sidebar thing... I forgot the name).

 

[tmax]

Looks like giant icons to me.

 

[eddieroolz]

Very nice looking. There are plenty of people using the Omnimo UI for Rainmeter already, so when fully implemented this UI can become a favorite tool for customizers.

 

[kanaida]

Microsoft isn't stupid, clearly they knew what was wrong and corrected things with windows 7, so even if this IS a new UI and even enabled by default, you'll always get to go back to "classic" if you really do want to. Think of how many people actually run windows 7 in classic mode that looks like windows 2000 ? I've only see that on very very low spec machines because I set it that way. No one else that i've seen ever has.

 

[tommysch]

All I want is the ability to turn off that shitty new UI and I will be happy.

 

[Guest]

Im only worried that even though the UI just exists on top of the old UI, this is guaranteed to use up additional resources. Hopefully there will be a way to completely disable the tablet looking UI

 

[Chetou]

"It just looks like shit to me, a bunch of processed, gooey shit."

 

[milktea]

I know this article is not about Microsoft. But I just have to say, if this UI ships with Windows 8 on a new computer, I'd disable this UI immediately.

This tile based UI completely blocks out any cool wallpaper backgrounds. So it really takes the beauty away from even tablets.

 

[fir_ser]

Interesting theme and good efforts from the Italian developer Sergio James Bruccoleri.

 

[Arctic Nerd]

Whatever. Yawn. Too bad I spent years customising DOS and Macs. All that knowledge lost and my work still not finished. All forum talk seems to be about looks. Methinks, American fetish with Walt Disney - cartoons rule. I could still get my work done on an ASCII screen if it still was available. We're all pawns in the techno-sell game. New tech doesn't mean new thinking or new info. Just more techno-waste of time and resources. Less people know less now than 30 years ago. That's progress? Yawn. I'm going to the basement for my IBM 1 model 25, MSDos 3.1 and WordPerfect. Still works, has 3.5" floppies, 20 mb had and my dot matrix printer. Only the add-on Tandy clock-chip has stopped. Hmmm.... 1985? Back to the Future! Yay!