7 ms·

A meta-comment: I'm really pleased to see an article like this at the top of HN. It's informative and side-steps both the marketing bullshit about the metro i

A meta-comment: I'm really pleased to see an article like this at the top of HN. It's informative and side-steps both the marketing bullshit about the metro interface and all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that metro has engendered. More like this please.

freehunter 14y ago
Even better, it's an informative article from ExtremeTech. Perhaps their editors have been listening to my tirades here on HN every time a biased, unfair, and completely wrong article is posted. Reading this article, I kept going back to the top of the page to make sure I was still on ExtremeTech and didn't get rerouted to a different site.
batgaijin 14y ago
No no no no no. If Linux people had to put up with crazy shitstorms over Gnome 3 and Unity, Metro most certainly is going to get it's fair share as well.
- freehunter 14y ago
  Unity and Gnome3 had maybe a year of shitstorms before it died down to some grumblings here and there. Metro has been around for two years, and one year for desktop Metro. It's getting on time to move it along.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    The thing with Metro is that nobody yet knows how well it will fare with it's target audience, the so called "average user".
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
  - smacktoward 14y ago
    It's been around for two years, but on a platform that nobody uses: Windows Phone. It's only been around for nine months or so on a platform with an actually significant number of users: XBox 360. It's coming soon to a platform with something like ten times the number of users the 360 has: Windows. So there's going to be a lot of people encountering it for the first time over the next few months.
    - freehunter 14y ago
      But we here have known about it for a long time. The shitstorm might come from the average user. I guess that it won't. But seeing HN folks screaming at the walls every time some blog troll writes an article saying "Windows 8 Sucks!" really gets old. I'm getting sick of writing long-form comments pointing out the truth about Windows 8 rather than the lies that are being spread, having those comments get upvoted and some good comments on them, and then five minutes later there's another post that makes people scream and holler again. It gets old. I'm getting tired of sounding like a Windows 8 fanboy (I'm actually fairly ambivalent) just in comparison with the ridiculous hyperbole and FUD being spewed here constantly.
    - contextfree 14y ago
      The Windows Phone UI is not the same as the Windows 8 UI. They have similar visual aesthetics and some shared features, but the interaction conventions are actually pretty different.
      - barista 14y ago
        Yes they are a bit different. I love the swipe from edges on Windows 8. Hope it comes to Windows phone someday.
        ragesh 14y ago
        It's already there, but just on the home screen and only for the notification icons.
- chc 14y ago
  It may be that complaints over Metro are inevitable, but that doesn't mean these "crazy shitstorms" are such worthwhile reading that they deserve a spot on HN.
- tjoff 14y ago
  Difference is that you are not even supposed to use metro on your workstation and that you still have the best window manager on the market alongside metro. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Gnome 3 or Unity. They seriously believe that you'd want that for everything.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    >the best window manager on the market alongside metro I'm sorry, but are you kidding me?
    - WayneDB 14y ago
      As a matter of fact, nothing even comes close to the balance of stability, backwards compatibility, consistency, robustness and flexibility that Windows offers. What do you think is better and why? Perhaps "better" should be defined. I certainly don't think that shiny is better. I prefer utilitarian and flexible interfaces. Windows fits that bill swimmingly and I think most businesses would agree because I don't see many of them using anything else outside of Google.
      - lelandbatey 14y ago
        I realize this isn't exactly what you asked for, but my personal opinion in terms of straight up window management is a solid tiling window manager like dwm or xmonad. The Windows WM adds a bit to much shine to windows (for me) and doesn't have the efficiency that I love with tiling window managers. Mostly the ability to have everything I want viewable at once, along with keyboard commands to manage everything, is what makes tiling window managers so awesome for me. Having said that, I do recognize that it's only this way for me. For many people, the default Windows WM provides plenty of power and flexibility to be awesome.
        ehsanu1 14y ago
        nothing even comes close to the balance of stability, backwards compatibility, consistency, robustness and flexibility I was going to suggest XMonad as well, in response to this. Seriously, try it if you're using Linux.
Joeri 14y ago
Also meta: i appreciate the irony of an informative article about a tablet-friendly OS on a site with the worst tablet presentation of pretty much all mobile-optimized sites I've seen (it took almost a minute to load on my ipad 1, and crashed the browser partway through).

freehunter 14y ago

Even better, it's an informative article from ExtremeTech. Perhaps their editors have been listening to my tirades here on HN every time a biased, unfair, and completely wrong article is posted. Reading this article, I kept going back to the top of the page to make sure I was still on ExtremeTech and didn't get rerouted to a different site.

batgaijin 14y ago

No no no no no. If Linux people had to put up with crazy shitstorms over Gnome 3 and Unity, Metro most certainly is going to get it's fair share as well.

freehunter 14y ago
Unity and Gnome3 had maybe a year of shitstorms before it died down to some grumblings here and there. Metro has been around for two years, and one year for desktop Metro. It's getting on time to move it along.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  The thing with Metro is that nobody yet knows how well it will fare with it's target audience, the so called "average user".
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- smacktoward 14y ago
  It's been around for two years, but on a platform that nobody uses: Windows Phone. It's only been around for nine months or so on a platform with an actually significant number of users: XBox 360. It's coming soon to a platform with something like ten times the number of users the 360 has: Windows. So there's going to be a lot of people encountering it for the first time over the next few months.
  - freehunter 14y ago
    But we here have known about it for a long time. The shitstorm might come from the average user. I guess that it won't. But seeing HN folks screaming at the walls every time some blog troll writes an article saying "Windows 8 Sucks!" really gets old. I'm getting sick of writing long-form comments pointing out the truth about Windows 8 rather than the lies that are being spread, having those comments get upvoted and some good comments on them, and then five minutes later there's another post that makes people scream and holler again. It gets old. I'm getting tired of sounding like a Windows 8 fanboy (I'm actually fairly ambivalent) just in comparison with the ridiculous hyperbole and FUD being spewed here constantly.
  - contextfree 14y ago
    The Windows Phone UI is not the same as the Windows 8 UI. They have similar visual aesthetics and some shared features, but the interaction conventions are actually pretty different.
    - barista 14y ago
      Yes they are a bit different. I love the swipe from edges on Windows 8. Hope it comes to Windows phone someday.
      - ragesh 14y ago
        It's already there, but just on the home screen and only for the notification icons.
chc 14y ago
It may be that complaints over Metro are inevitable, but that doesn't mean these "crazy shitstorms" are such worthwhile reading that they deserve a spot on HN.
tjoff 14y ago
Difference is that you are not even supposed to use metro on your workstation and that you still have the best window manager on the market alongside metro. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Gnome 3 or Unity. They seriously believe that you'd want that for everything.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  >the best window manager on the market alongside metro I'm sorry, but are you kidding me?
  - WayneDB 14y ago
    As a matter of fact, nothing even comes close to the balance of stability, backwards compatibility, consistency, robustness and flexibility that Windows offers. What do you think is better and why? Perhaps "better" should be defined. I certainly don't think that shiny is better. I prefer utilitarian and flexible interfaces. Windows fits that bill swimmingly and I think most businesses would agree because I don't see many of them using anything else outside of Google.
    - lelandbatey 14y ago
      I realize this isn't exactly what you asked for, but my personal opinion in terms of straight up window management is a solid tiling window manager like dwm or xmonad. The Windows WM adds a bit to much shine to windows (for me) and doesn't have the efficiency that I love with tiling window managers. Mostly the ability to have everything I want viewable at once, along with keyboard commands to manage everything, is what makes tiling window managers so awesome for me. Having said that, I do recognize that it's only this way for me. For many people, the default Windows WM provides plenty of power and flexibility to be awesome.
      - ehsanu1 14y ago
        nothing even comes close to the balance of stability, backwards compatibility, consistency, robustness and flexibility I was going to suggest XMonad as well, in response to this. Seriously, try it if you're using Linux.

Joeri 14y ago

Also meta: i appreciate the irony of an informative article about a tablet-friendly OS on a site with the worst tablet presentation of pretty much all mobile-optimized sites I've seen (it took almost a minute to load on my ipad 1, and crashed the browser partway through).