I think what you are saying here is largely in line with how I view Microsoft, they are providing a well polished product to the masses. What my point was, while Windows it is very well designed and polished, it does not have anything radically new. I'll try and go over each of the examples you brought up:
>Tap or click on a tile and a whole new screen flips up
This functionality predates window managers. Granted, most mainstream systems do not work this way, there are still actively maintained window managers that do, such as xmonad and awesome, as well as all smartphones I've seen, even the wii does this.
>Even compared to iOS, Metro is far more dynamic, mainly due to its radically simpler design language. The basic fonts and block colours of Metro can squish and stretch and dynamically resize in a way which is largely impossible with the carefully detailed chrome of iOS.
iOS/Windows hardly represent all of computer interface (in terms of content, not market share), and simple design is hardly a new concept.
>Talking mostly from my experience with WP7, it’s remarkable how wall-less the OS can be. The way you can move from a messaging thread to your messagee’s contact card, simply by tapping their name, and seeing all their latest social activity on Facebook, is great.
I am not fammilar with the specific thing you are refering to, but it sounds like a single feature in the messaging app.
>The platonic Metro ideal is that all the parts of the OS flow seamlessly together
It would be more radical for the ideal to be that different parts should not flow together. Speaking from my experience with Linux, OS 'flow' is not something new. I use a relativly uncommon window manager (officialy supported though), yet I can still use all of the standard Gnome widgets without issue, the centralized package management system makes installing new apps (even from 3rd parties) easy, including dependencies. The entire office suite is highly integrated with its other components (IE you can import a spreadsheet graph into a presentation, where you can edit it almost as much is in the spreadsheet program). One of the core principles of UNIX is that apps do one thing well, and you do complex things by having the apps talk to each other. I hope your right and Windows goes in that direction.
>the whole platform is tied together with Windows ID, and all your files and info synced seamlessly across all of your Windows devices with Skydrive.
Nothing new, cloud computing has already started taking off, the chrome book is the obvious example, but smartphone have already pioneered much of the way on this one, and Ubuntu ships with desktop integration to Ubuntu 1, facebook, twitter, IM and email,(and probably others I don't use). It had these since at least 10.04 back in 2010.
>I think W8 is best seen as a transition product, making the first steps away from the old WIMP desktop. So yeah, right now, they haven't tinkered with the old desktop much. But a split is forming: between the simple easy-to-use frontend of the OS and the technical backend. Expect this split to become more coherent in W9.
Again, non-WIMP systems have been around since before WIMP, and there have always been actively maintained ones, modern ones (I am writing this post from one such system). Besides, it still has icons (bigger even), a pointer, and I would imagine it still has menus. It also still has windows, although they are now managed by a tiling WM, not a composting one. Again, this is a change in Windows I am very exited about, because it will make it more like my computer already is.
>But a split is forming: between the simple easy-to-use frontend of the OS and the technical backend.
This split has been forming for a long time, I have yet to meat a non-technical user who knew anything about the technical back end. W8 just makes the gap wider.
Don't get me wrong, I think Windows 8 has the potential to be a great OS (after 1 or 2 service packs), but windows isn't in the business of bringing new computer concepts into the world, it is in the business of polishing and packaging existing concepts and bringing them to the masses.
What I don't like about Windows is that the frontend is treated as an integral part of the OS, which (I suspect) is why we don't see the level of novel designs we see on Linux, where it is standard for distributions provide a menu on the login screen to select the desktop interface you log into. This allows people to easily install to desktop interfaces, try them out, and if they don't like them log out and back in to one they do like. I don't expect the average user to do this, but it allows development to proceed on all fronts, and provides room for new ideas to be tested, and the good ones find there way to the default desktop.
Also, please tell me they changed the green color blocks since the developers preview.
Hah, I haven't hear about these green blocks, and actually I haven't tried any of the previews! I've been stuck with just my iPad for a few months now.
I think feature by feature is the wrong way to think about W8. Perhaps these features aren't all brand-new, but I think the depth and thoughtfulness of integration is. Also I think you are underestimating some of the changes - particularly the social/identity integration, the inter-device seamlessness, the visual overhaul, and the input-mode flexibility. No matter. I would also argue that the most important thing is that this is hapening in the mass consumer space. Like it or not, Linux doesn't mean anything to the average computer user (not to say Linux isnt important - I checked out some videos of Unity and Gnome3, looks really cool.)
Anyway, my point is here that its the whole package and the way its tied together that matters - and then the impact that complete package has when unleashed on the masses. This is potentially a computer experience that makes OS X look like arcane calculus. I think it will really only start to make sense as the public gets hold of it, and as devs start to understand and make the most of all the new possibilities. Definitely my experience with WP7 is that you only really understand it by using it. There's something about the whole package that just feels right - the way all the bits of the OS mesh together. It still feels exciting after months of owning my phone. My iPad in comparison frankly feels pretty but dull. The only problem is that 3rd party development is a wasteland - nobody seems to care enough to think through how to make an app that makes sense in the WP7 environment. Hopeflly W8 will start to shift that balance.
Honestly I think you might be the wrong market for W8. Sounds like you are a pretty serious computer user. Although I have heard good things about W8's desktop, and hey who knows what Microsoft has planned for W9. By the by, Linux is sounding more and more interesting the more I hear! Still, for most people its jut too weird and hard no?
My point is not that Microsoft is not doing an amazing thing with W8 (I'll wait until service pack 1 to make that decision), but rather that they are not doing anything new. I'd be amazed if you could find an example of any technology that was new when it hit the mass market.
>Tap or click on a tile and a whole new screen flips up This functionality predates window managers. Granted, most mainstream systems do not work this way, there are still actively maintained window managers that do, such as xmonad and awesome, as well as all smartphones I've seen, even the wii does this.
>Even compared to iOS, Metro is far more dynamic, mainly due to its radically simpler design language. The basic fonts and block colours of Metro can squish and stretch and dynamically resize in a way which is largely impossible with the carefully detailed chrome of iOS.
iOS/Windows hardly represent all of computer interface (in terms of content, not market share), and simple design is hardly a new concept.
>Talking mostly from my experience with WP7, it’s remarkable how wall-less the OS can be. The way you can move from a messaging thread to your messagee’s contact card, simply by tapping their name, and seeing all their latest social activity on Facebook, is great.
I am not fammilar with the specific thing you are refering to, but it sounds like a single feature in the messaging app.
>The platonic Metro ideal is that all the parts of the OS flow seamlessly together
It would be more radical for the ideal to be that different parts should not flow together. Speaking from my experience with Linux, OS 'flow' is not something new. I use a relativly uncommon window manager (officialy supported though), yet I can still use all of the standard Gnome widgets without issue, the centralized package management system makes installing new apps (even from 3rd parties) easy, including dependencies. The entire office suite is highly integrated with its other components (IE you can import a spreadsheet graph into a presentation, where you can edit it almost as much is in the spreadsheet program). One of the core principles of UNIX is that apps do one thing well, and you do complex things by having the apps talk to each other. I hope your right and Windows goes in that direction.
>the whole platform is tied together with Windows ID, and all your files and info synced seamlessly across all of your Windows devices with Skydrive.
Nothing new, cloud computing has already started taking off, the chrome book is the obvious example, but smartphone have already pioneered much of the way on this one, and Ubuntu ships with desktop integration to Ubuntu 1, facebook, twitter, IM and email,(and probably others I don't use). It had these since at least 10.04 back in 2010.
>I think W8 is best seen as a transition product, making the first steps away from the old WIMP desktop. So yeah, right now, they haven't tinkered with the old desktop much. But a split is forming: between the simple easy-to-use frontend of the OS and the technical backend. Expect this split to become more coherent in W9.
Again, non-WIMP systems have been around since before WIMP, and there have always been actively maintained ones, modern ones (I am writing this post from one such system). Besides, it still has icons (bigger even), a pointer, and I would imagine it still has menus. It also still has windows, although they are now managed by a tiling WM, not a composting one. Again, this is a change in Windows I am very exited about, because it will make it more like my computer already is.
>But a split is forming: between the simple easy-to-use frontend of the OS and the technical backend. This split has been forming for a long time, I have yet to meat a non-technical user who knew anything about the technical back end. W8 just makes the gap wider.
Don't get me wrong, I think Windows 8 has the potential to be a great OS (after 1 or 2 service packs), but windows isn't in the business of bringing new computer concepts into the world, it is in the business of polishing and packaging existing concepts and bringing them to the masses.
What I don't like about Windows is that the frontend is treated as an integral part of the OS, which (I suspect) is why we don't see the level of novel designs we see on Linux, where it is standard for distributions provide a menu on the login screen to select the desktop interface you log into. This allows people to easily install to desktop interfaces, try them out, and if they don't like them log out and back in to one they do like. I don't expect the average user to do this, but it allows development to proceed on all fronts, and provides room for new ideas to be tested, and the good ones find there way to the default desktop.
Also, please tell me they changed the green color blocks since the developers preview.