Uh, I suppose this is the part where I should tell you that I've always loved you, but I don't. I really, really don't.

So last week Microsoft took the covers of Windows 8 (still the code name right now) and released a developer preview of the OS so that folks could get their grubby mitts on a pre-beta version a year from its public release. Microsoft's move with Windows 8 is clearly a response to the growing popularity in touch based operating systems, namely Apple's iOS, HP's (now deceased) webOS and Google's Android. While Apple, HP and Google have answered the tablet question by trying to enhance simpler operating systems designed for smart phones, Microsoft is trying to sell the idea of "no compromises", by trying to simplify the mess that is Windows into something that can be run on touch devices.

Their answer to this question is a new interface for Windows inspired by Windows Phone 7 called Metro. These metro styled apps run in full screen, are built in HTML5 and Javascript to support multiple architectures and are designed specifically for touch. Metro apps are displayed front and centre in the new start screen. On a tablet this seems to make a lot of sense and is somewhat familiar. A screen full of tiles, full screen apps with large icons for touch, hidden menus that only appear when required, where have I seen this before?

Where things get a bit uncomfortable is when you realise that alongside this metro interface is the ability to switch back to the classic Windows desktop (Microsoft truly are the kings of backwards compatibility). Here things have been tweaked and improved in places (multiple task bars in multi-monitor mode is particularly great), but for the most part this is Windows 7 as you know it. This may have been fine if tablet users could use metro and desktop users could use classic Windows, but they can't, at least in this build. Your classic desktop experience is all fine and dandy until you want to click the start button and launch anything. Thats when you find out the start menu as we know it is dead. It was taken round the back with a double barrelled shot gun and beaten in the face until its parents no longer recognised or loved it. Clicking that button in Windows 8 takes you back to the metro start screen, even if all you want to do is type a search and launch an application that requires you to go back to the classic desktop. Not everything is even accessible in the start screen. There is now simply no way to launch device manager by hitting the windows key and typing its name, for example.

Before I sound like a complete negative nancy, please don't get me wrong. I'm very excited to see Microsoft doing something entirely different with Windows and I love the look and feel of metro. I can't wait to see what types of apps people build for metro and am even curious to see if I can build one myself. I'm just not entirely sure whether this experience is going to work outside of tablets. Windows without windows on a 30inch monitor makes as much sense as full screen mode in OS X Lion on a large display.

Also, while Microsoft claim they haven't just stuck an additional shell on top of Windows (apparently the desktop is treated like another app and doesn't even load if you don't use it), as a user it certainly feels like they have. The clash between classic Windows and metro is incredibly jarring, as if I'm trying to use a computer that has two operating systems installed that are battling for control.

Using metro is also not a fluid and intuitive experience, especially on the desktop. In metro apps you right click to bring up menus, and press the Windows key to get back to the start screen. Every keyboard on the planet has an escape key designed to "get you out" of the thing your currently in, and yet it doesn't exit a metro app. In fact, press escape on the start screen and it goes back to your previous app. Applications that scroll left and right also make no sense on desktop computers with a mouse that have been designed to scroll up and down. On the start screen the scroll wheel actually scrolls left and right, but in apps where you have panes inside the app that go up and down, you are forced to use the scroll bar to go left and right. And just when I thought we were finally done with scroll bars.

It's clear that Windows 8 has some way to go (it's a year from release) and I shouldn't be judging it now, but Windows 8 concern me as much as it excited me, because Steven Sinofsky has a reputation for only revealing products when they are feature complete, and not making changes or taking feedback. We will have to just wait and see.

Images from thisismynext.com