Andy Ihnatko on Windows 8

Glowing review:

My overall opinion is so high that it has to be stated right here in the first paragraph: Microsoft has really cracked something here. With the Metro user interface, they’ve created a simple and beautiful design language that’s relevant to a broad range of devices and to the ways that people use computers in the second decade of the 21st century. […]

The Metro app interface is so free of white noise that when I launch a conventional Windows app and return to the world of menus and icons and overlapping windows, it’s jarring. I feel like I’ve switched the channel and landed in an episode of “Hoarders.”

Ihnatko’s response is pretty much exactly what Microsoft is shooting for.

There is a downside, though:

Also, a PC running Windows 8 feels like two entirely separate machines that share the same screen and keyboard via a KVM switch. I feel like I’m in Metro World and make occasional commutes to Conventional Windows World, or vice-versa. I’d like to see a smoother integration.

★ Monday, 5 March 2012