Microsoft dumps Metro from Windows 8
Microsoft has dropped "Metro", the name given to the squaretastic user interface for Windows 8 and Windows Phone, claiming it was just a code name all along. Litigation, though, may be the real reason as it seems the word may be owned by a European company or individual that objected to its use. The change comes late in the day …
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In response to...
"...Microsoft executives are racking their brains for a new word to sum up the controversial user interface..." I'd like to suggest
PAIN 4 Windows 8
Mine's the one with the broken glass in teh pocket...
Re: In response to...
I'd go for "Stillborn".
However, I thought Gartner got it right last week with "bad" - or have wacko's lawyers been sniffing around too?
Re: In response to...
WIndows 8 Morgue
Windows 8 Swansong
Windows 8 Whoopsy
Windows 8 Nosedive
Windows 8 Cratered
you get the gist...
Re: In response to...
How about calling it Windows real good
Re: In response to...
Their use of blocks of solid colour suggests:
Concrete Windows
Re: In response to...
"How about calling it Windows real good"
I suppose they're going to tell us that the "RT" in "Windows RT" stands for Really Terriffic.
I just think it's really terrible!
Re: In response to...
IMHO, they should consider co-branding it with Fisher Price.
Re: In response to...
Windows 8 Cancer
I mean it's spreading unstopably to all windows platforms, the name makes sense. About the only thing that would stop it now is by eradiating all the people who support it in microsoft and then injecting them with poison.
Re: In response to...
How about "Oh Hai" as in "Oh Hai! I iz a cellphone now LOL!" which is pretty much win 8 in a nutshell. I swear if i didn't know better i'd think the whole thing was an Onion style parody, but sadly others like Canonical have adopted the "Oh Hai" interface as well. It seems like Jobs last laugh is gonna be making every UI designer lose their minds and try to make everything into a damned cell phone like some cargo cult praying for the ghost of Jobs to bring them some iMoney.
Of course they could always go with metrosexual, its about as tasteless as metrosexual fashion and the guys up in Redmond wouldn't know what it meant anyway, they'd just be happy they could keep the original work by tacking sexual onto the end. Besides who don't like sex?
Re: New name, Barry?
Are you related to Barry Shitpeas? Seems like it runs in the family and is a more common ailment than I first thought.
Also, are they going to sue David Beckham for dressing up in skirts as a metro-sexual with a man-bag?
Doesn't seem like justice to me.
Re: New name, Barry?
Are you related to Barry Shitpeas? Seems like it runs in the family and is a more common ailment than I first thought.
Erm no
They should do it the Apple way...
They should do it the Apple way whereby you keep using the term even though you dont own but also actively suing anyone else that might be using the term, like the French undergound. ...
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
From reports elsewhere, it appears it is a German cash & carry outfit that are complaining about it.
The French borrowed the name for their underground railway from the District and Metropolitan Railway in London, which was often shortened to the Met or Metro. It became more frequently known as "The Tube" some time after they added actual tube tunnels to the network. The Geordies call their underground network "The Tyne and Wear Metro"
As pointed out elsewhere there is also a 1980s car made by the British Leyland Group with that name.
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
"From reports elsewhere, it appears it is a German cash & carry outfit that are complaining about it."
But surely trademarks have to be in the same area? I.e. you can have Apple the music label and Apple the computer maker, because they're not (at the time, anyway) overlapping. How can a "cash & carry" (that means a shop, btw?) be overlapping with a O/S GUI?
How can a "cash & carry" (that means a shop, btw?) be overlapping with a O/S GUI?
Maybe they're concerned about confusion over the "Metro Market" for apps?
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
Sorry, for the benefit of those outside the UK/Ireland, a cash and carry is a type of shop that sells things in bulk, primarily to shopkeepers.
So: Windows Marina then.
"Or Windows Leyland"
Entirely appropriate! Cars whose appalling build quality single-handedly destroyed the British car industry.
In Australia, Leyland produced a catastrophe called the P76 - so incredibly ugly and so atrociously built - even by Leyland standards - that it became Australia's answer to the Ford Edsel.
So I suggest Windows P76.
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
I guess Australia never got the Allegro, the first car to have a square (well 'quartic') steering wheel.
Clearly the Allegro design team have been working hard since then and the Win8 UI is their latest masterpiece so - WIndows Allegro
I'll bloody sue if they do.....
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
But Leyland's buses were (are, they are some still refusing to die) quite good, so how about:
Windows Routemaster
(and wasn't the P76 a WWII fighter plane?)
The one with the return ticket. ding ding!
British Leyland Group
but no-one is going to sue over the Mini Metro, because it would mean popping yer head out of the trenches and admitting you had some connection with the wretched misbegotten rustbucket.
Mine's the one with old car keys lost in the lining.
@Allan George Dyer
Windows Allegro sounds about right. It had a square steering wheel, everyone talked about it, and no-one willingly bought one.
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
Apple the music label and Apple the computer maker
wasn't there a protracted legal case on this, and the dark side won as i recall, even though apple corps predates the cupertino foxconn re-brander by several decades
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
Metro is also a supermarket in Canada
http://www.metro.ca/index.html
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
It's not about who owns the naming rights to what.
Having your business' name linked to Microsoft is a bad idea.
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
I think Windows P45 would be better. For people in the US who don't get the reference, it could be renamed to Windows Pink Slip.
Re: How can a "cash & carry" (that means a shop, btw?) be overlapping with a O/S GUI?
I'm sure that's it. If it is Metro AG, Microsoft could be in trouble if they wanted to have a "Metro market", and also if Metro AG decided to OEM phones with their own UI add-ons, for instance.
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
Excuse me! It wasn't only the appalling build quality; it was also the crappy design, both mechanical and aesthetic. The engine and transmission of the Marina were so over-complicated that maintenance on a small, cheap car cost more than it did on a 3.5 litre Rover.
I guess it might be libellous to mistakenly posit any resemblance whatsoever to Microsoft products. Though I do like Azure.
Re: They should do it the Apple way...
No. Much as I dislike Apple, it wasn't unreasonable. At the time of the agreement, the "Music business" consisted solely of selling overpriced vinyl and tat in order to keep Colombians in business. By the time Apple added the "sosume" sound to the Mac, computers were handling music and it would have crippled them not to be able to enter that business. Computerised music was not the music business in force at the time of the agreement.
I would agree that American conservatives believe that the Constitution written by a group of pre-industrial white slave-owning oligarchs is valid word for word for all time, but I submit that Conservatives in the US are so stupid that that in itself is an argument against rigid interpretation of old documents. (The other one is American religious conservatives who, if possible, are even more stupid...but I digress).
Re: They should do it the Apple way... Perhaps not
Metro is a worldwide wholesale & retail company with a turnover of about 60 Billion € (2011), and the largest reseller of Microsoft software in Europe (Media Market, Saturn). With about 250.000 employees a little bit larger than Microsoft, and certainly with some good lawyers.
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
Marina
Scarily bad compared to the opposition.
Poor front suspension, cart spring rear suspension
Rust
Bigger engines are BLs duff designs.
I much prefered the Avenger in that market place, good suspension, great seats, tough well designed 1600 pushrod lump with 8 port head and well oversquare.
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
No, but I'll bet there wouldn't be any trademark disputes if the called it Windows Malaria instead.
Re: So: Windows Marina then.
What about the Windows P45 :D
Why not an OBVIOUS infringement... :P
<wince>
Back to where RIM was with the BBx(*) trademark...
For Win8 -- Should have been code-named "Squarepants", and released as "Spongebob" for all I know.
(*) A trademark owned by Basis International.
"Spongebob Squarepants" is a tradmark of Viacom via Nickleodeon brand also owned by Viacom. Trademarke referred to and Used under Fair Use provisions for this comment.
Re: Why not an OBVIOUS infringement... :P
"Should have been code-named "Squarepants"
No, just shorten it to "Pants", says it all, really.
Re: Why not an OBVIOUS infringement... :P
They already tied Microsoft Bob. So how about sticking to Sponge?
@TechnicalBen Re: Why not an OBVIOUS infringement... :P
Works for me...everyone knows that sponges suck....
Re: Why not an OBVIOUS infringement... :P
Mmmm.... I like Windows PANTS.
Windows Post-Aero NT Server
I can help them rename this. They want something that summarizes the Design Language Formerly Known as Metro.... The BBC article on this says the previous name was picked because it is "modern and clean"... We can work with that.
It's also tied to their operating systems, we want people to know that.
So, I say the new name should be....
MAC OS.
Oh...
And they should go all in....
And only release it to boot campers!
Re: You got me
Ditto. I was actually thinking "at last, they understand!"... shame
The "Classic" Win8 desktop seems quite reasonable, but I just found the Metro (or whatever) stuff a huge waste of my time...
I maintain that if they're looking for a name that is:
- in keeping with their corporate branding and colours
- reflects the structured, grid-like appearance
- also reflects the way that the public feel about their products
then surely the only possible names they can consider is "Blue Waffle"?
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