For the most part imo the flattening of the ui was an improvement. Puts the code in focus and minimizes everything else. They did go a little bit too far I thin

For the most part imo the flattening of the ui was an improvement. Puts the code in focus and minimizes everything else. They did go a little bit too far I think especially with the icon set but overall I've found it to be cleaner and easier to focus on the code. Hopefully they'll back off a little from extreme flatness and find a better balance in a future release. Seems to me the whole win8 ui fiasco is something Microsoft does a lot.. Have a good idea, go way overboard with it, and end up having to pull back and find a more refined middle ground in a future release. If only they'd find a way to internalize this process instead of making us all into a usability study...