[counterpointer]

Have you actually used Windows Phone or Windows 8 for any length of time? The animations are very subtle on actual devices and work very well with the flat look.

Can't speak for the animations being screencasted across the internet via streaming video though which can introduce lag, jitter, FPS drops and artifacts, especially for fast moving scenes like animations. I'll reserve my judgment till I install the preview.

[RyanZAG]

The full screen, multi-colored tile metro screen is subtle and not jarring? The one that pops up whenever you want to launch a new program, completely removing any context of what you are currently working on? Is that what you're actually saying?

The strange rotating 'subtle' animation you are trying to say makes up for this just makes it all the worse by putting completely unnecessary 'bling' all over a workstation.

[untog]

So you haven't used it, then?

[skrebbel]

Clearly he hasn't.

[prawks]

'Jarring' is different from 'subtle'. Jarring implies that the transition between states is abrupt and confusing, nothing about how obvious of a transition it is. In fact, in order to not be jarring, a transition should be very obvious to the user.

[ChikkaChiChi]

The metro interface can and will continue to be jarring when its allowed to change the contextual relevance on screen in situations where I may not want that.

It's the same reason why you sometimes walk into another room and ask "now what was I coming in here for?"