So, It’s Called Metro, Right?

One of the tough decisions we had with this book concerned naming conventions. See, we think names are important. They provide a simple and obvious way to refer to the things we’re describing throughout the book. It’s nice to be able to point out a new on‑screen gadget and tell you, hey, look, that’s the new thingamawhatsis or whatever.

Unfortunately, there’s a new trend at Microsoft where the (we assume) well‑intentioned designers behind all the fun new interfaces in Windows 8 not only don’t want to name things, but seem actively engaged in rewriting history by retroactively simplifying the names of objects that appeared in previous Windows versions. So the Start Menu is now simply called Start. That way, when we move forward to Windows 8, Microsoft can claim that Start–or, more pretentiously, the Start experience–works like before but is now a full‑screen experience and not a menu. Even though in reality, they’re completely different.

So it is with the Metro environment. Microsoft does not refer to the Metro environment as anything in particular; they just claim that it’s Windows, generically, as if wanting or needing to call out these completely new and different user experiences was a ludicrous notion. Indeed, right after it completed Windows 8, Microsoft decreed that it would not use the term Metro to describe these new experiences, ostensibly for legal reasons.

We’re not buying into this. In the interests of clarity, we’re naming things. And in those places where Microsoft refuses to name names, we’re giving them names. And sometimes we’re deviating from the way Microsoft does things. But to be clear, we’re doing this for you, to make things obvious and simpler, and to prevent clever or lengthy turns of word that would annoy all of us.

For example, Microsoft has gotten the app bug. Everything to them is an app these days. And that includes new Metro‑style apps–those apps that run in the new environment described in this chapter–as well as old‑school, Windows desktop‑based applications. Folks, desktop applications are not apps. They’re applications. And we differentiate them from Metro‑style apps–because they are very different–by giving them a different name. So when we use the term app, we’re referring only to Metro‑style apps. When we use the term application, we’re referring only to desktop‑based applications.

Ditto for Metro. Microsoft refuses to name this environment, or even use the term Metro, but we’re not so shy. There are two main user experiences in Windows 8, and while one is the desktop environment we all know and love from previous Windows versions, the other is… Metro. At least that’s what we’re calling it.

Sometimes, of course, Microsoft does get it right. In Windows 7, for example, there was a feature called Start Menu Search, which we liked quite a bit. In Windows 8, this has been replaced by something we’d be inclined to call Start Screen Search, which will make a lot more sense once you see it in action. But Microsoft’s name for this feature, which it has retroactively applied to the Windows 7 feature as well, is Start Search. And you know what? That works just fine, since it’s clear and obvious, and simpler. Ultimately, we’re just trying to be pragmatic here.