News - Microsoft Windows 8 to drop 'Aero'

[HEXUS]

A return to the pre-Vista era of visuals?

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[krazy_olie]

"To further Microsoft's attempt at simplification and the removal of distractions, buttons have had a visual update, with the removal of gradients and glows and again, squaring off of the edges"

Talk about elephants in the room Metro seems like one big distraction to me!

[edvinasm]

I haven't properly tried the Windows 8 OS yet. Last time I did I managed to catch a virus even with AV software running and it made me to delete some core files. All system went belly up. Never mind..
I think Aero was just a.. well bubble. You can still see transparency in "Start menu" tray (if you can still call it Start menu). So it seems it's going to be the same.
I don't like the tiles interface though and I hope that's just a touch screen gimmick. Though who knows.. It depends on large user group who might go either way. It's all preferences though and I hope MS will understand it by keeping the Start button and My Computer on the Desktop.

[crossy]

I've got mixed feelings on Aero. On my home PC I think the transparency works well, and it does look quite stylish.

On my works PC it's a different matter - there's too many programs (e.g. quite a few Java-based GUI's, NX client, etc) that force Windows7 to drop out of Aero to the "Basic" mode. And after a while that switching Aero-Basic and back again as you launch and exit non-compatible programs does get a bit wearing.

That said, my Ubuntu box loses all it's visual tweaks when I'm NX'd into it (like now) so I can understand MS wanting to drop the "unnecessary" visual tweaks in return for a bit more platform compatibility.

[cheesemp]

It does seem like the only focus of Win8 is reducing overhead on lower spec hardware. Have they not noticed Apple's all about the shiny UI? At least I guess it means Win8 will fly on a PC - just hoping they get the power off fixed so you can do it with a mouse without some magical pixel being hovered over by the cursor...

[mark22]

I'm sure it will be back in with themes soon after release.

[TheAnimus]

surely this is about battery life?

also, the gloss effect on buttons and icons is now really rather dated, an example of something I just find but ugly is OSX windowing system, the action glyphs for instance are somewhat of a throwback to a early 2000 idea of what looks pretty.

I kind of like the minamilist look, but wounder how much customisation is been lost!

[CK_1985]

Squaring off of windows/buttons is fine, losing 'glow' effects is fine, but the loss of transparent windows is too much of a step backwards for me. The windows in the screenshot provided just look plain ugly.

[Dark Knight]

Why not just make it an option for you to turn on/off and simply out of the box have it set to off so users who can't run AERO successfully don't complain. Regardless I doubt it will be sorely missed as when it was first introduced I really didn't care much for it and it didn't significantly improve my viewing experience. I'm sure over time we'll all get used to it like it's the norm again.

[Noxvayl]

I quite like it but I agree with Dark Night, why do they have to force this onto users? It's so simple to just add the option to turn it on or off. This is what annoys me about Microsoft, instead of producing interesting new features and giving people the option to use them they force you to do so and they wonder why people get annoyed.

[aidanjt]

So no more window decorations.
No more start menu.
No more desktop-centric UI.
No more productive work.
No more DVD playback.

Are Microsoft planning to pay people to use this OS? Surely no sane person would pay for having a more useless OS.

[tickleonthetum]

Why can't they just put in an option to disable the 'pretty' elements if you want to? I happen to like the flashy, shiny look of Windows 7, and think the new look is boring, flat and dull...

I never liked Apple stuff in general, but I have to say their GUI looks great...

[crossy]

Why can't they just put in an option to disable the 'pretty' elements if you want to? I happen to like the flashy, shiny look of Windows 7, and think the new look is boring, flat and dull...

Maybe since they're channelling the meme of "it is ain't broke, fix it anyway" perhaps they're also going to harken back to Window95 and introduce an optional "Plus" pack. In which case, perhaps Aero will be put in there.

I've gone from merely disliking Metro to actively hating it. Serves me right for thinking that Unity was the nadir of modern OS UI development.

[Funkstar]

[devBunny]

Call me a Luddite but I say "function over style, please". Give me familiarity, clarity and efficient use of screen space any day. In other words, as long as I can revert any new Windows to look like Win 2000 then I can be a happy bunny. ;o)

[Spud1]

Urgh..I have traditionally had a lot of faith in MS and their UI decisions. Most of them initially scream "ewww thats horrible", but turn out OK in the end (Case in point: the ribbon). This however just seems like a slap in the face to those of us who really like having pretty, good looking buttons/windows/etc. This OS is going to be ran on many high end machines, not just on tablets/tablets/touchscreens, and it needs to be designed well for both, that much is key.

Fine remove Aero for tablets/touch screens, provide the option of having glow-less buttons (which are not required with a touch screens, but are incredibly useful with a mouse), remove the pretty bevelled edges, remove the incredibly useful transparency..but make it an OPTION. These changes don't strike me as being too big as to cause MS a problem with themeing - so whats the problem with having two themes?

This is very much a mountain out of a molehill, but it feels like a very big backwards step, almost like MS have given up on competitng with OSX on the UI front and we're heading back to practicality/function over looks. (Love or hate OSX and its practicality - it's full of pretty bits of the UI that Windows doesn't come close to)

This whole argument then falls flat on it's face when you consider all the effort they have put into Metro, albeit with very average results.

So summary being..lets wait and see what the final result is, very hard to judge until we get to see it.