[tjoff]

There is waaay too much focus on metro. Which is kind of natural since it is new and different, but because of the focus on metro people get confused and honestly think that there is nothing but metro in windows 8.

Metro is targeted towards Media Centers, tablets and casual consumption. Not workstations. If you are not doing your work on an iPad today you probably won't do work in metro tomorrow. Simple as that. The media and the PR department of MS of course would like you to think otherwise (just to hype it) but that is pure lunacy, of course you will have a real workstation OS as well (and that is also where you will do your work).

The thing I look forward to in windows 8 is that it will probably be the first OS that is suitable for a tablet as well as being able to actually do something useful with it. For the first time the tablet will not be a toy but actually real, albeit niche, alternative to a laptop. That is huge, and that is what windows 8 brings to the market.

[arethuza]

"There is waaay too much focus on metro."

Arguably Microsoft haven't exactly been helping here. I recently attended a Microsoft conference on a topic unrelated to Windows 8 and it was very noticeable that the official PowerPoint template for the show used a "Metro" theme. Which I have, to admit, makes a pleasant change from the usual PowerPoint bullet points...

However, one of the most amusing things I saw at the show was when I sat behind someone who was using a laptop with a touch screen and Windows 8/Metro. Guess what happens when you have a laptop with a touch screen balanced on your knees and you go to touch the screen.... As you might expect, your latop falls over and lands on the floor.

[molmalo]

Maybe, this kind of excessive focus on metro is because its the real novelty in this os. The rest, is just a stronger and faster Windows 7. But understandably, that doesn't seem to be that interesting in comparison

[chris_wot]

So I don't really understand Metro. If it's been designed for tablets, and not workstations, what UI do you use for day to day work, on a workstation?

[bornhuetter]

Windows 8 has two environments. One looks pretty much exactly like Windows 7, but with no start button, and the other is Metro.

If you don't run any Metro programs, the only thing that really changes is that the start button is replaced by a start screen with all those live tiles and icons on it.

[molmalo]

This is what I think that a lot of people is misunderstanding. You will use the desktop as always in a workstation. Only while launching apps you will use the new start screen, unless you pin your most used ones in the taskbar. That way, you could work all day long without using the new start screen.

[chris_wot]

So I guess I'm not sure what compelling case there is for Metro on the desktop then. What does it give me that the old UI didn't?

[tjoff]

The (about) same UI that you have in windows 7.