Saturday, May 19, 2012
Windows 8 Release Preview: RIP, Aero (2003-2012)
Microsoft quietly revealed this week that it will kill off the Aero glass interface in Windows 8 and replace it with a flat, Metro-like Explorer that’s more in line with the company’s current design mantra. But this change isn’t just about obfuscation. It’s about the Windows team abandoning the very market that drove Windows’s success for over 25 years in order to chase a coming and potentially illusory market for tablet devices.
In the heady early days of Longhorn, circa 2003, the addition of “glass” to the windows in Windows was seen as both a major push forward and, lest we forget, a way to catch up with the UI translucency effects that Apple had previously added to Mac OS X. Since then, Microsoft shipped its first Aero-based Explorer in Windows Vista in 2006 and then deeply refined this UI in Windows 7 in 2009, adding the effect to the taskbar. But now Microsoft is killing Aero, apparently, removing the glass from Windows 8. And the real reason they’re doing this may surprise you.
As has been the case so often recently, this momentous news comes not via an obviously-titled Microsoft blog post like “Why We’re Killing Aero.” Instead, Microsoft buried this information deep within a mammoth 11,000 word blog post,
Creating the Windows 8 user experience, that deals mostly with the history of Windows UIs (yes, seriously, dating back to 1985) and, for Windows 8, the new Metro-based user experiences. Why Microsoft can’t just get to the point is beyond me. But I guess that’s why people like me exist: To cut to the chase.
So let me spare you some pain. A full 10,000+ words into this book-length blog post, Jensen Harris—who, God help me, I just love the guy—finally admits that Microsoft, even this late in the development of Windows 8, is about to change the desktop user interface.
What?!
Here are the relevant parts in which Mr. Harris describes the coming changes:
“We want desktop windows to continue to feel light and airy, and we want a chrome style that doesn’t distract from the content of the app … Aero was designed to help the app’s content to be the center of attention, and for the Windows system UI to recede into the background. This is still relevant today, and while we are moving beyond Aero, we don’t want to lose sight of these goals.”
“We made a conscious effort to relate the visual appearance of the Windows 8 desktop to the visual appearance of the familiar Windows 7 desktop. This helps people who want to predominantly use the desktop feel comfortable and immediately at home in the new environment.”
“We applied the principles of ‘clean and crisp’ when updating window and taskbar chrome. Gone are the glass and reflections. We squared off the edges of windows and the taskbar. We removed all the glows and gradients found on buttons within the chrome. We made the appearance of windows crisper by removing unnecessary shadows and transparency. The default window chrome is white, creating an airy and premium look. The taskbar continues to blend into the desktop wallpaper, but appears less complicated overall. To complete the story, we updated the appearance of most common controls, such as buttons, check boxes, sliders, and the Ribbon. We squared off the rounded edges, cleaned away gradients, and flattened the control backgrounds to align with our chrome changes. We also tweaked the colors to make them feel more modern and neutral.”
I gave a Publisher file a 'doc' file extension and Libre Office turned it's nose up at it. I don't currently have Open Office installed anywhere so haven't tried that.
