I have been using Windows 8 for awhile now on my home computer. The first thing I noticed about windows 8 is how fast and clean everything feels.  It does not have the lipstick on a pig feel that was Windows Vista. After reading Brooke Crothers post on cnet, it reminded me as to why Aero was created, and why its now being dumped.  They were playing catch up to Apple.

Aero, a short hand I’m using here for the glossy reflective glass candy look and feel that was pioneered by Apple, was just that, a reaction to the success of Apple.  Somehow the designers at Apple can take the whole Candy look and make it work.  Windows, not quite as well.  Worse, all the computer resources needed to run Aero taxed some older and not so old systems.  I have a pretty powerful 8 core gaming desktop at home, and I do not run it. Now that we are coming up to Windows 8, its clear Microsoft has realized Aero needs to be dumped.

And I agree.  I like the idea of having a very clean simple design, not only because it appeals to me, but because it takes far less computer resources to support.  That means you do not need to have as powerful graphics card, memory both on the card and computer, and CPU and thus battery.  So by making things clean and simple, the rewards go far beyond the look and feel, but the whole on to off experience.

If you think that windows 8 Metro feels like something you would see on a phone or tablet, that is because it is.  Be starting design at the tablet level, including keeping things light for lesser powered tablets, we are benefiting every time we start or awaken our PC’s in windows 8.  Windows 8 starts almost as fast as a modern Mac and actually executes faster then a Mac.  By removing all the unnecessary overhead of the Aero system as well as other improvements, the system actually feels fast, clean and more importantly, NOT like a Mac.  The desktop experience still feel the same in general, but when I go from my Win8 PC to my Mac, I can feel that I’m using two different products, where before it just felt like both OS were the same, but a few styling differences.

It seems that Microsoft is committed to the Metro system and good or not, its a departure from the old way of doing things.  Since Windows95, it always seems Windows was playing catch up, for once it seems, they are trying to form a new path.  Fingers crossed.