[baldfat]

> Windows 8 was a separate UI for desktop and tablet

Wait what? The "Metro" was the combining of the GUI for touch and mouse. I actually prefer the Win 8 UI since it is more of a tiled window manager like I use in Linux. Windows 10 is back to click with a mouse. Windows 8 I never touched the mouse unless I needed it in a program.

> Windows 10, for comparison, more closely combines the tablet and desktop modes

It was a move away from Tablets and back to laptop desktop focus.

[wvenable]

> The "Metro" was the combining of the GUI for touch and mouse... I never touched the mouse unless I needed it in a program.

The Metro interface was not optimized for mouse operations; it was a touch UI you could "touch" with a mouse. All apps were full screen. UI elements were hidden and meant to be swiped from the sides of the screen. Nothing about Metro seemed to be optimized for the desktop.

But thankfully you could completely switch modes and have a regular Windows 7-like desktop experience. When I ran Windows 8.1 it booted straight to the desktop, I used ClassicShell for the start menu, and I never saw a single metro app.

With Windows 10 can run metro applications in regular desktop windows as well as switch to tablet mode and run regular desktop applications and metro apps full screen or tiled.

[baldfat]

The "Metro" was also optimized for keyboards

[wvenable]

Metro supported keyboards (to an extend) but I wouldn't say it was "optimized" for it. Even some Metro apps, like Netflix, couldn't be controlled by the keyboard. That one kept me from using the Netflix app on Windows 8 as a HTPC solution.

[NetStrikeForce]

> It was a move away from Tablets and back to laptop desktop focus.

Why? I mean, what are the changes that make you say that?

[baldfat]

Windows 7 was not a tablet environment. Windows 8 was a full tablet environment and Windows 10 is a mixture of both and tablet took a tiny hit.

I'm weird I know but I preferred Windows 8.1 and more so on touch devices. I have about 20 touch screens at work and I miss the charms and the swipe in from the right and the easy short cuts. Open a program in Windows 8 was win-enter. Windows 10 it is win-arrow up. silly example but these arguments are usually silly when talking preferences.

[wvenable]

You aren't that weird. My daughter had a touch screen laptop and she also preferred Windows 8 to Windows 10 and missed the charms and the swipe in. I, however, could barely use her computer because of all the fingerprints!

Windows 8 on the "desktop" was a carrot for all the computer manufacturers who decided, that year, to put touch screens on everything.

A better strategy for Microsoft would have been to call it Surface OS and release it just for tablets (and phones) and focus on Metro and have the desktop as a cool add-on for their tablet OS. For the desktop, they should have done a Windows 8 that was more like 7 yet still have Metro but more as an add-on. This wouldn't have helped you as much but it would have been better for them overall.

[baldfat]

> A better strategy for Microsoft would have been to call it Surface OS and release it just for tablets

I say open up the ability to run optional desktop environments like we have in Linux. I can have my tiled window manager (I am sure 2% of users would LOVE it and 98% would HATE it) and then others could use one of the official desktop environments. No need for a whole OS version. Its bad enough we have Pro and non-Pro Windows 10.

[wvenable]

Seems like a recipe for confusion and fragmentation. It certainly hasn't helped Linux.

Although my suggestion sounds like two different operating systems, it's really just about how it's marketed. Fundamentally the technology doesn't have to be any different.

Of course, if your OS is flexible enough things like tiling can be done as add on: http://www.nurgo-software.com/products/aquasnap

[Osiris]

Windows 10 has a tablet mode.