[citation][nom]malphas[/nom]A good user-interface is one that allows a high degree of customisability rather than enforcing a particular style on the user. If Microsoft make their UI as flexible as possible, the use their usage data to tweak the default settings to suit the majority of users and less technically adept users then they can have their cake and eat it.I've never been satisfied with a Windows GUI on a fresh install, but always been able to customise it to my liking. At present I have nothing pinned to my Taskbar, fourteen of my most used programs pinned to the Start Menu, disabled most of the default user directories like "Documents", ""Pictures", "Games" etc., and have everything in the Notification Area hidden besides the volume control and network status. "Show desktop icons" is disabled. It's a very clean layout and simple/quick to work with, but probably not all like the typical Windows user UI.[/citation]
Exactly! I am the opposite. In reading this I have to keep opening the start menu just to know what people are talking about because I NEVER use it. I have 15 pined programs to the super bar at work, and nearing 30 at home. It is easier to manage and organize, and changes over time to what I am using. Some crazy people litter their desktop with icons which I find morally offensive. But it is just another way people can use the device. The point is that it works either way!
With my habits I will rarely see the metroUI, so I don't care much about it, and kinda like the potential there. But you are right; The start screen will drastically kneecap the ability of people to use the computer they way they want to. especially in it's current unfinished state where nothing can be really customized, only organized.
Let us have more say in what shapes we can use. Give us list views, and smaller/larger tiles. Allow us to use more/less rows in our columns. Let us change the backgrounds and color schemes like our desktop. Let us display system information in the background if we want to, and disable it if we don't. Give us options, we are not mac users. We buy our computers because they are Personal Computers. Extensions of ourselves! Give us control, or at least the illusion there-of, so that we can do things without that feeling that MS is looking over our collective shoulder.
My favorite part of vista/7 is the transparent glass look of the thing. Minimize the font sizes for the bars, use small icons, use a near transparent white, hide the start bar, and you know what you get? A nice, open, clean looking interface that stays out of the way and merely does what it is supposed to: show the content of the programs you are using! No more of the cartoon winXP look, or the blockey win95-2K look. It all just goes away leaving user experience.
And if you like all that junk in your face you can make it as dark and oppressive as your heart desires. The choice is yours for you are user!
\end rant
even ubuntu has something like that 
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