Bonum Certa Men Certa

Windows Commits Suicide With Blue, Old Interface to be Deprecated, Then Buried

Microsoft takes the blue pill

BSOD



Summary: Microsoft is exiting the desktop market by abandoning the old platform which in turn can't be replaced by a new one (Android/Linux already dominant)

MICROSOFT is in serious trouble and it knows it. One site asks if Windows Blue Microsoft's next step in killing the desktop, joking in a sense that Vista 8 no longer targets the desktop. SJVN suspects that Microsoft will dump the desktop metaphor completely, for the first time in decades. He writes:



The early look at Blue have some Windows experts thinking that Microsoft is getting ready to dump Windows 8's desktop mode once and for all in favor of Metro. No!


John Dvorak adds to this debate by warning about Blue:

Apparently at least one person prefers the dumb Metro interface over what is possibly the most popular metaphor—the desktop. The desktop metaphor began with the Xerox Star and ran through the Lisa, Macintosh, and Windows for decades to become the most popular product in history until the mobile phone appeared. But screw that, let's do this instead. If it ain't broken, let's fix it with something dumbed-down.

Everyone knows I think it stinks. My Windows 8 has long-since been patched to push the tiles off to oblivion. I'm happy with the results. I boot straight to the desktop and there I stay.

So now Microsoft is pushing the dreadful Blue. Who wants more and smaller tiles? As I explained back in September 2011, tiles simply slow you down.

Microsoft used to be accused of producing sluggish bloatware because the CPU was too slow. Today it's showing over and over that the software itself is slowing down productivity in new ways; the ribbon interface is said to knock down productivity by as much as 35 percent. You can't help but wonder: does this company hate productivity?

And now, after everyone has groused about the advisability and usability of full-screen apps, especially on huge monitors, the Snap View feature allows up to four full-screen programs to equally share a screen. Wow! Innovation! Hey, I could do that before—and it was easier to accomplish.

Luckily, there are various third-party patches that make this dysfunctional program useful. But how long will they work if Microsoft makes Windows 8 worse with every new idea?


It is not as though Microsoft is gaining a foothold in portable devices. Developers too continue to ignore Windows in devices. As a new article put it:

Beyond supporting OpenGL, Microsoft needs to make itself a priority for game developers. It can’t always play catch up. It must convince game developers that they should build for Windows Phone within months, if not weeks, of a game launch. We can’t expect them to develop for Windows Phone first, but neither should they be doing so a year or more later. Instead of trying to wow us with yesterday’s hits, Windows Phone needs today’s hits today.


The Windows franchise is dying [1, 2], rapidly alienating developers, too. We need to protect Linux-based platforms from the inevitable patent assaults, which are worse than FUD; they're legal threats. They are signs of desperation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
 
Links 07/09/2025: Yle Impersonated in Social Control Media, Boat-Attacking Orcas, Midjourney Sued Again
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place