Windows 8 is bringing a very tablet-y Metro interface to machines next year, and it looks like they’re following in the footsteps of other tablet manufacturers in excluding Flash from their browser.
Microsoft says that “to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free”. That means that if you launch the browser from the Metro start screen, you won’t be able to use Flash or other plug-ins on any of your sites. However, if you launch it from the traditional desktop, you’ll still have your Flash. You can read more about Microsoft’s decision at their blog, linked below.
What do you guys think? Do you think this is a good compromise, since you have a battery-friendly, plugin-free version of IE available and have the desktop to fall back on? Or do you think this is just going to become one of your bigger Windows 8 annoyances? Let us know in the comments.
Metro style browsing and plug-in free HTML5 [Building Windows 8]
Owen Cooper
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 8:04 AMAnd at the end of it, you’re still using IE.
My first impressions of Windows 8 are that it’s a half-baked attempt at getting on the sexy GUI bandwagon. It’s a new and novel concept as far as widget-style computing goes (for someone who’s never really used Windows Phone), but it doesn’t add much in the way of functionality that isn’t easily matched by just about any web browser with a few tabs open (admittedly a traditional approach might not be as pretty, but what is that really worth in the computing world?).
wsDK_II
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 9:31 AMSorry, your opinion is invalid simply because you state this “And at the end of it, you’re still using IE.” without providing reason.
I have a windows phone 7, and i have the win8 prebeta running on one of my computers. It.Is.Awesome.
The 2 tier approach is amazing, and completly new. There is nothing like it, and it works well.
If you have played with the Win8 prebeta or a wp7 phone you would not have made your comments.
I come from iOS4 and iPhone 3GS / 4 so i am not a windows fanboi. But WP7 and W8 on a tablet will be my next devices.
Virus__
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:01 AMI agree, i’ve been really feeling the love for Microsoft of late for some reason. They’re really impressing me with WP7 & Win 8.
I loved what I saw when I gave Win 8 a spin the other night, I want to try it out on a tablet too, where i’m sure it will really come alive.
Pyta
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:09 AMI would say that the reason he noted that you would still be using IE, is that the Metro interface is a web technology based system, and when Microsoft makes a web based system, it tends to be based on IE infrastructure.
Owen Cooper
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 6:38 PMIf you actually think I need to explain why using IE is bad, you’ve either never used it or you’ve never used anything else.
I downloaded the developer preview within a few hours of it being made available, and while I don’t own a WP7 phone, I’ve used it a few times and I haven’t been impressed. The same can be said of W8. I was not impressed. I stand by my original comments: it’s a half-baked attempt.
Pyta
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:13 AMI installed the Dev Prev and I was appalled. I won’t go so far as to say it rendered the computer almost impossible to use, but it did make it very difficult. I mean it is pretty and all that, but with a mouse the whole thing goes to hell. There is no swiping across the menus, you have to use some scroll bar at the bottom, you have no normal start menu, and even when you perform the registry edit to enable disable Metro, it is still buggy. Now when I press the windows key on the keyboard, Metro flashes up for a second then the desktop flips around and only THEN does the start menu appear.
It is like they tried to follow OS X Lion’s move of making the OS more like “My First Operating System”, but they have made it more unusable than any version of windows I have ever seen.
Virus__
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:32 AMYou can change all that back to a Windows 7 interface, LifeHacker put a guide up yesterday on how to do it :)
Virus__
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:33 AMhttp://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/09/switch-your-windows-8-start-menu-back-to-windows-7-style/ Sorry forgot to include the link!
Pyta
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:51 AMI mentioned I had done that. I also mentioned that the start menu was buggy as all hell once it was disabled.
Twas doing funny things.
“Now when I press the windows key on the keyboard, Metro flashes up for a second then the desktop flips around and only THEN does the start menu appear.”
Pyta
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 10:51 AMOops, forgot to click reply
Jeff
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 11:42 AMTried Win8 Dev Ed. It didn’t seem anything particularly innovative about the user interface. In fact it seemed a bit hard to navigate around, it was either dumb dumb simple or plain difficult to use, in other words, frustrating. Was this interface designed by a bunch of school kids or professional designers? Given this is not the finished product I can’t understand how a company with so many resources hasn’t come up with something better so far…maybe desktop OS’s are on the way out?
clint
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 12:20 PMso.. youtube.. does it detect no flah and work with html5?
clint
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 12:22 PMthe ui is very touch friendly, but a bit unwieldy for desktop mouse use, The keyboard makes it work fast though just by typing straight on the ui.
however I am loving the speed of this os. quick stuff
Nath
Friday, September 16, 2011 at 2:26 PMI’m with the others who are less than impressed. Using a mouse, not very good.
It might be a miracle on tablets, for sure, but purely desktop I’d rather some better innovation. Despite arguments to the contrary it seems very much win7 with metro slapped on top.
And the background metro green – am I the only one who thinks that’s a gross colour??
typedmillepede
Monday, September 19, 2011 at 11:05 AMTHE GREEN IS DISGUSTING AND I HATE IT. interesting os evolution though :P