On the last day February 29 Microsoft launched in Barcelona, during the Mobile World Congress, the Consumer Preview of its new operating system. To enter the new wave of touch screen Windows 8 Metro interface brings introduced by Windows Phone 7 and also became known in the last update of the Xbox 360. The new interface brings a visual filled with small colored tiles that value iconography. Some of these tiles are dynamic and show information like new emails, the weather and calendar appointments. It's something that strives to differentiate itself from Apple's iOS system, whose icons are static elements and the interface tries to mimic the real world as an agenda with leather cover and a Moleskine notebook.
The Metro interface is a major paradigm shift for the former Windows user, this text not started talking of such tiles for nothing. The Start menu as you know there is more, he turned on the screen that you just see in the first image above. It is the screen that appears after your login, which gives the operating system a feature that resembles a tablet more proper than your "old" Windows 7. Other factors that contribute to "tabletização" system is the fact that applications run in full screen, without that title bar at the top with the buttons 'minimize - zoom in / out - close' on the right side, and now Microsoft seems to prefer you do not close the programs, but put them aside (literally) from a list of recently used programs. In Metro Microsoft simply removes the concept of windows that gave name to the operating system.
But do not despair - yet - the old desktop (desktop) is available but Microsoft seems to have left it in the background so you can focus on the interface Metro. The access is made through one of the tiles "Start screen", the image of the top of the post it is double the tile at the base of the first row on the left, showing the fish stylized new default wallpaper of Windows 8. Seems strange to put access to something the size of the work area in the middle of other small programs like Weather Forecast or Solitaire (Solitaire), Microsoft seems to want you to really use the Metro more than the old interface.
More timid, the desktop still retains gadgets implemented by Windows Vista in 2006, a feature that should not even be relevant as to offer them poor. The edges of the windows of the programs also inherits aspects of Vista, translucency, but lose the rounded edges to gain a more clear, very welcome. The shocking difference, because of the Metro, is the absence of the button "Start menu". Access to the "Start screen" will still be natural and can be done by the Windows key on the keyboard or on that same corner that was the old menu. Hovering the mouse cursor in the area where he was before (bottom left) appears a small graphic that will take you to the Metro interface on screen (you can not escape it for long).
Another big change is that the Ribbon interface introduced by Microsoft in Office 2007 is now present in almost all major programs that support the Windows 8 Metro outside, this includes Windows Explorer. Who liked the old menus that always had "File" as the first tab will have to say goodbye and embrace the new system, which I personally find more enjoyable. You lose a little speed and screen space, but gains most representative icons than just a text list.
This war between interfaces brings me to another point, the programs themselves. Here we can divide them into two different species: those who inhabit the underground environment and those who inhabit the old desktop. They are easily distinguishable by the tiles in the "Start screen", the colorful are the resources that leverage the new Metro interface for tablets and are friendly, while others need more generic ecosystem you take Metro to run. There are programs for the version with two interfaces as the case of Internet Explorer. The two versions are not unified, and operate under independent processes.
The conflict extends to other areas of the system. The sidebar of recent programs only shows programs from Metro Subway, treating the whole of the ancient environment of the desktop as if it were just another application whatsoever. Thing the keyboard shortcut Windows + Tab also makes, other than Alt + Tab that treats all programs more smoothly.
The programs will be distributed through the Metro shop online Windows Store, like all other mobiles systems - iOS and the App Store, Google Android and Play (Old Market). Although still lacking a lot for the official launch is already possible to find some familiar applications of competing systems, the biggest name is the game Cut the Rope. Follow the lead of Apple, who did the same to implement the Mac App Store on Mac OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard.
Part of games Metro seems to be all associated with the name Xbox, piggybacking on Microsoft product that is at its best in the market. Apparently the area should focus on simpler games, sharing games with smartphones using the Windows Phone 7 system (which already has the Xbox Live brand). Meanwhile there is a lot of news for the Games for Windows brand, which seems to have been buried after his failure to facilitate idea of playing on the PC.
Another part that resembles the Xbox is selling multimedia content. Unavailable for Brazil, Windows 8 will give access to the same catalog of music and videos that a user has the Xbox. Abandoning the name and service Zune, Microsoft will have a much greater reach to sell multimedia content. It's a race delayed after iTunes, but you should be paying off in a growing market in the U.S.. Other competitors include Netflix, Amazon, and Google Play.
Note that Windows 8 is a highly connected to the internet by providing content in a centralized manner, which worries me a lot seeing the Brazilian case of Xbox Live. The sale of certain content collides with commercial rights (each country may have a different distribution for each artist) and / or legal issues (such as the mandatory age rating of the Ministry of Justice in order to sell games in Brazil). On Xbox Live these restrictions have caused the catalog Brazilian was absurdly lower than the U.S. catalog.
Most of this text calls into question the decision by Microsoft to bring its smartphone interface for computers. The Metro is one thing you will want to use? I must admit that the negative tone of this text has much to do with the platform I used for testing, a conventional notebook. The experience might be much richer and more fluid on hardware that supports touchscreen - capacitive preferably - in which Windows 8 is making the most of gestures such as finger slide on the sides of the screen and the pincer movement with the ability to multi touch recognition. I'm not saying I'm wrong because my case will be many, probably of most users.
Microsoft has struggled to make the Metro usable in both types of platform, both in the use of touch as a mouse and keyboard. The problem is that the adaptation is not as intuitive as using the mouse is with touch gestures. It's a slow learning curve, because at least in this Consumer Preview there any kind of tutorial. Some menus in which they would access them by pulling your finger on one side of the screen, you must click on the mouse right button. They are not exact translations, which can confuse and frustrate many.
When installing the Consumer Preview - which is actually a fancy name for beta - not had any problems with drivers, Microsoft seems to have suffered enough with Windows Vista compatibility and kept them. Things work well, and say that he is well prepared for the launch scheduled for the second half of this year. My laptop that runs Windows 7 64-bit could work here quickly and stable, there is a system that makes great hardware requirements. The point here is to optimize, including a new version will be specific to ARM processors - low power consumption, facing handsets - which unfortunately will have some restrictions.
The big question that is put on the table is the need to unify the interfaces. The Metro is already present in Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360, and now is the time Windows 8 learn this language. The same interface is already handled via touch screen, joystick, Kinect, voice command and now keyboard and mouse, each with its own peculiarities. Is it possible to get the best out of each platform - smarthphone, tablet, game console, PC - with only one interface? The unification will make the user's life easier or more confusing? These are bets that Microsoft is paying to see.
With bold ideas, the way to success still has barriers. Windows 8 will very much depend on the sale of new machines. HP, Dell, Samsung, Sony and other partners should design new computers that emphasize the use of the touchscreen, and light on practical solutions. To compete with - still small but growing - Mac is important to have speed and ease of use. Harnessing the evolution of netbooks, ultrabooks, to give a new image to the PC that runs Windows. If possible, avoid selling computer full of crap (bloatwares) factory installed. And also it would be nice if Microsoft would stop creating multiple versions of the operating system (Home, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, Enterprise, Starter Edition, etc.). Unfortunately there are indications that there will be eight different versions for sale on the market.
I do not usually get these very changes that alter something I'm accustomed and comfortable, as happened to change the taskbar in Windows 7. I guess nobody likes, yet they are making sense and you begin to notice and appreciate the improvements. The Metro interface is perhaps the biggest change in the system since Windows 95, and at least for me it is not a natural change. The "post-PC era" forced Microsoft to take a stand, and this great change of interfaces seems to be the way to modernize the platform. The problem is that we are in a transitional phase, and the alternation is often confusing and annoying (it took me to find, for example, the button to turn off the computer). I hope that Microsoft make some adjustments that go missing until its launch in the second half to make it more user friendly. Small adjustments can make all the difference.
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