Bill Gates

Now, in practice, it's not hard to find the desktop. You learn it in like five seconds. You're like, oh, okay, I see. The start screen is actually the start menu, but full screen. So if I click in the bottom left corner, I can collapse it. I can enter the desktop mode and then it's like it doesn't even exist. I can run my Win32 apps, blah, blah, blah. But there is a learning curve.

Now, in practice, it's not hard to find the desktop. You learn it in like five seconds. You're like, oh, okay, I see. The start screen is actually the start menu, but full screen. So if I click in the bottom left corner, I can collapse it. I can enter the desktop mode and then it's like it doesn't even exist. I can run my Win32 apps, blah, blah, blah. But there is a learning curve.

Yeah, and it is a little confusing. I used it for a long time when I worked at Microsoft and figuring out how to app switch between things that are part of the Metro modern UI versus the legacy apps and what's sitting on my desktop and what's sitting in the... tablet-optimized app switcher. It mixed two metaphors. Now, the question is, why did it mix two metaphors?

Yeah, and it is a little confusing. I used it for a long time when I worked at Microsoft and figuring out how to app switch between things that are part of the Metro modern UI versus the legacy apps and what's sitting on my desktop and what's sitting in the... tablet-optimized app switcher. It mixed two metaphors. Now, the question is, why did it mix two metaphors?

And it took me a while to figure this out. But what ended up happening was the original vision for the Windows 8 Touch thing that we're all talking about, these live tiles, that was supposed to only ship for tablets as it was originally dreamed up. And there was a version of Windows 8 that did not have that that was going to ship for desktop PCs.

And it took me a while to figure this out. But what ended up happening was the original vision for the Windows 8 Touch thing that we're all talking about, these live tiles, that was supposed to only ship for tablets as it was originally dreamed up. And there was a version of Windows 8 that did not have that that was going to ship for desktop PCs.

Word comes down from on high, Windows is Windows. We need to ship Windows across all devices. So what happens? All this effort has gone into, and momentum and political capital and betting your career has gone into this HTML5 developer community, the Metro UI community. And so that is the desktop version that ships.

Word comes down from on high, Windows is Windows. We need to ship Windows across all devices. So what happens? All this effort has gone into, and momentum and political capital and betting your career has gone into this HTML5 developer community, the Metro UI community. And so that is the desktop version that ships.

Yep. And what you have is not as bad as Vista, but man, the rollout was pretty bungled. It's confusing. The reception was poor. Interestingly, not by the tech pundits, like the tech pundits who actually spent some time and figured it out were trained up pretty quickly. But the cat was out of the bag even before they got to review it on people who were angry.

Yep. And what you have is not as bad as Vista, but man, the rollout was pretty bungled. It's confusing. The reception was poor. Interestingly, not by the tech pundits, like the tech pundits who actually spent some time and figured it out were trained up pretty quickly. But the cat was out of the bag even before they got to review it on people who were angry.

What do the Microsoft people refer to them as? People that... Oh, the basement. The basement. Yes, the 0.001% power users who are the loudest, of course, on the internet. And so that kind of taints the product. OEMs hate it because, frankly, OEMs weren't signed up to make these touch devices, but now Microsoft's putting all this energy behind touch-optimized operating system.

What do the Microsoft people refer to them as? People that... Oh, the basement. The basement. Yes, the 0.001% power users who are the loudest, of course, on the internet. And so that kind of taints the product. OEMs hate it because, frankly, OEMs weren't signed up to make these touch devices, but now Microsoft's putting all this energy behind touch-optimized operating system.

So there's this mixed message to consumers. It's like, are there even good laptops available? Am I supposed to use touch on my desktop? They have to run ARM, right?

So there's this mixed message to consumers. It's like, are there even good laptops available? Am I supposed to use touch on my desktop? They have to run ARM, right?

Yeah, my dream machine is, you know those Lenovo Yogas that can flip all the way around? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. My complete dream machine is my 13-inch M3 MacBook Air that when I flip it all the way around, they do something like universal binary with the apps where all the same apps that I had installed on my Mac, they now run their iOS counterpart.

Yeah, my dream machine is, you know those Lenovo Yogas that can flip all the way around? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. My complete dream machine is my 13-inch M3 MacBook Air that when I flip it all the way around, they do something like universal binary with the apps where all the same apps that I had installed on my Mac, they now run their iOS counterpart.

They grab all the data that's stored in the same places. So all my apps, you know, it knows which Google sheet I'm looking for. It has the YouTube videos cached. It, you know, does whatever, but it just turns into an iPad with an iOS interface UI, that is the dream. I can't figure out if I'm like a super nerd for wanting that. And most people wouldn't actually want that.

They grab all the data that's stored in the same places. So all my apps, you know, it knows which Google sheet I'm looking for. It has the YouTube videos cached. It, you know, does whatever, but it just turns into an iPad with an iOS interface UI, that is the dream. I can't figure out if I'm like a super nerd for wanting that. And most people wouldn't actually want that.

But I travel with an iPhone and an iPad and a MacBook. And I think I could just do two. I think a lot of people would want it. Yeah. So one takeaway may just be, hey, it was too early. The other takeaway might be, look, it turns out that tablets should have been a scaled up phone, not a scaled down PC. That was certainly true at the time. Yeah.

But I travel with an iPhone and an iPad and a MacBook. And I think I could just do two. I think a lot of people would want it. Yeah. So one takeaway may just be, hey, it was too early. The other takeaway might be, look, it turns out that tablets should have been a scaled up phone, not a scaled down PC. That was certainly true at the time. Yeah.