In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Maybe someone could explain this fervour for a desktop? I rarely see my Windows desktop, let alone actually use it for anything.

so how do you use it unless you just use Metro apps? the metro apps are horrid, most are not usful and the couple I see that could be are rubbish and limited.

Not all of use spend our computer time in a browser, if we did them we may as well get a chrome book

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

The Amiga 1000, complete with WIMPs and first developed in 1982, was unveiled at CES early in the summer of 1984.

I miss my Amiga.

so how do you use it unless you just use Metro apps?

well you can for example put panels (or whatever they're called) on the metro interface to launch desktop apps like Windows Live Mail, LibreOffice etc.

I still have a few along with a load of other "vintages".

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Maybe someone could explain this fervour for a desktop? I rarely see my Windows desktop, let alone actually use it for anything.

so how do you use it unless you just use Metro apps? the metro apps are horrid, most are not usful and the couple I see that could be are rubbish and limited.

Shortcuts on the start screen

I wonder how many people realise metro is the current long term goal and the desktop is now considered legacy by microsoft so as such will be removed in a future version of windows, and when its removed its not just the desktop itself its also desktop apps.

Microsoft will simply be waiting for metro apps to build up to a large enough number and will watch usage patterns and when they see desktop usage fall below a certian % they will kill it.

Unless that is enough people are stubborn like me and never use metro apps to replace desktop apps so as such they cant get that figure below the % to kill it without a backlash.

Aking to M$ there then.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

so how do you use it unless you just use Metro apps?

well you can for example put panels (or whatever they're called) on the metro interface to launch desktop apps like Windows Live Mail, LibreOffice etc.

But then you're jumping in and out of an environment. It feels clunky. As if you're using some kind of emulator and the computer is switching you into 'legacy mode'. And all that to get an environment that takes away useful features like overlapping windows that some of us rely on and that have been part of Windows (heck even the very name itself!) since inception.

Metro is fine for tablets and phones but it just isn't adequate for the kind of work I do. I typically have half a dozen applications running, spread across three screens. And yes I am often keeping an eye on one thing while using another.

My current theory is that the desktop might get dropped from most versions of Windows but they will keep a 'power user' or 'developer' edition that still has the desktop and may indeed have that as the primary UI. My productivity would be seriously impaired by Metro.

Edited by Andrue (Thu 09-May-13 14:57:57)

yes, you're forced to jump "environment" for example if you want a POP3 mail client.

I agree the dual mode is undesirable, especially when you have two parallel instances of Internet Explorer with no commonality, but I was just saying why you might not need to ever see the desktop while still using "desktop" style apps.

I don't know much about Win 8 but I do know that I was pushed to upgrade to IE10 because it was apparently so much superior to previous versions, but it has caused freezes and hangs that I never ever got with IE9. My first ever BSOD on my newest laptop was caused by IE10. Microsoft are losing it with these newer and newer versions that are too tricksy for their own good. Of course we need to move on, but after proper testing/research/evaluation.