Windows 8 on a Touchscreen


TAIPEI—I have not, to this point, been the world's biggest fan of Windows 8, but I've had a difficult time pinpointing precisely why. Throughout the Developer Preview, the Consumer Preview, and now the Release Preview, I've found myself turned off by a startling number of things about the Metro interface, from its colors (Technicolor vomit dump) to its functionality (pre-school simplistic).

But today, while watching Intel executive Thomas Kilroy's keynote speech at the Computex e21 Forum , I think I finally figured out what bothers me so much about Windows 8 and Metro: They seem to want to take the user experience backward.

No, not just in terms of relegating you to one window per screen after you may have become used to five, six, seven, even a dozen at a time. (Over the last month or so I've started referring to the OS, only half-jokingly, as Window 8.) Rather, it's that until now the evolution of the PC has always been about giving the user more power over what he or she does. But here Microsoft is, in one fell swoop, taking a lot of that power away. Worse is that I fear the company is also abetting in the diminishing of the very drive we have to create and do more for ourselves, and instead turning us into devourers of content rather than people who maybe—just maybe—could make a lot of it ourselves.

Computex bug 2012

In his speech, Kilroy focused a lot on the senses, and examined how he perceived Intel-powered phones, tablets, and ultrabooks will help people become more aware of the sights, sounds, and physical sensations their computers inspire in them. "What we see, what we hear, what we feel," he said. "That's what defines our experiences. And the fuel for that is defined by content."

Right. But why is it that whenever people like Kilroy, in high-powered positions, praise Windows 8 and the hardware that's going to run it, all they ever do is praise the way it makes content easier to consume? Once upon a time, and not even that long ago, major new technologies were framed in terms of the active ways they'd let you expand your and others' horizons, and not merely the passive ways you'd be able to absorb other people's views of what you are, or should be, interested in.

I'm not saying I don't understand this viewpoint on some level. I do. It's easy to recognize it as the Apple model of "you'll take what we give you, and you'll like it," which has defined the App Store experience (and not without some controversy) from the very beginning. Apple is always the gatekeeper. That's not a point of view I share, at least most of the time, but even I'll admit I think it can have its place. Not coincidentally, I'm sort of okay with gatekeeping in the areas Apple has been exceedingly careful to relegate it.

By maintaining a closed ecosystem for iOS apps, Apple has successfully established some kind of quality control and also been able to easily deliver users what they expect from their software. It's the Apple way extended beyond Apple's own development boundaries; the company found a way to keep a grip on what bears its name, while no longer having to do all the work of building the programs themselves. This works for Apple because the company has always been about offering a completely integrated experience from top to bottom, and this is just the continuation of that same mindset.

But PCs are different and always have been. Using a PC has traditionally been about taking more control over your computer and your life as it relates to it. You've always been able to build a system that matches exactly your needs and budget, with either no excess or as much as you wanted. Back in the olden days it also meant modifying config.sys and autoexec.bat files so you could get your programs to run without conflicts. After that (and, to no small extent, still today) it was about rearranging icons and windows to help make you more efficient in whatever you did. And after that, it was about creating content, whether through blogging software, photo or video editing, and other similar activities: If you had the power and the drive to do anything, you just needed to find the right software to help you.

With Windows 8, however, Microsoft and its partners are diminishing your ability to create content, or at least the ease with which you can do so. "No," Metro coos, "just sit back and look at sports scores through this app, or check the DJIA through this one. We'll take care of it all for you. You don't need to do anything. In fact, we don't want you to do anything." Yes, yes, if you absolutely have to, you can always fire up the desktop and get some actual work done, but if that weren't really supposed to be the last of last resorts, wouldn't Microsoft let you boot into it and start your computing journey there?

Read on: A rare case where Apple made the objectively smarter choice in splitting up its OS choices?