Microsoft, You Need to Make up Your Mind

Several weeks back, I wrote about Apple being [unapologetically different][https://techinch.com/blog/apple-unapologetically-different]. Apple's choosy in what they'll release, and they tend to stick by their choices and lead the industry. They're opinionated, in their software choices, in their devices, and in the way they market and deal with the public. It does its best to seize the future in the way it deems best.

Microsoft has long been accused of simply following — then near-monopolizing — market trends, from their user interface to their browser and more. Yet, with their Metro (now called Modern) UI design launched in Windows 8 is a distinctive style that's [boldly different][http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-windows-8-approach-bold-arrogant-or-both-7000013905/] than any previous version of Windows.

Bold changes take determination, and they don't always take off. But Microsoft needed to try something drastic — anything, almost — and Windows 8's design is a defining change that's attracted grudging admiration from even Microsoft critics. Windows 8 looks and feels new, and while it copies from competitors where it makes sense — with its own App Store, "natural" style scrolling, minimal scroll bars, integrated spell check, and included internationalization, all like Mac users have expected for years — it's different enough that Windows 8 feels fully unique.

If you approached Windows 8 as a brand-new operating system, sans-desktop and legacy apps, it's very interesting on its own right. But Microsoft decided to leave the desktop in, apparently to cater to their primary customers — businesses that have stuck to XP and have grudgingly at best adopted Windows 7 — while still trying to win the future in tablets and mobile. They took out the start menu, moved most settings and commands — including shutdown — to the new style of Windows 8, but left traditional apps running in a stripped-down Windows desktop that looks like Windows 7 with less features and a broken Aero interface.

Of all weird things, Office 2013 — quite an ambitious release in itself, one that's strongly integrated with the other half of Microsoft's future: the cloud — is only for the traditional desktop aside from a separate OneNote app. Office 2013 should have been the strongest supporter of the new Windows style, and here it sits in the now old-fashioned desktop. And that's not all: the Windows Live suite of photo and video editing apps are still in the desktop, as are the bundled apps like Paint.

It's like Microsoft got a solid vision for the future, went far enough with it to shake up their whole OS strategy … and then got cold feet and backed up. The market's done the same: Windows 8 has incredibly low adoption rates, and complaints from users and the press continue to roll in.

The word now is that the next release of Windows, so-called Windows Blue or Windows 8.1, will include new ways to customize the new Windows 8 start screen and have more of Control Panel moved into the new Windows Preferences, but will also include options to boot to desktop and possible see a return of the iconic Start button. There's also word — possibly — of an update to Office 2013 that'll bring it to the Start Screen as a modern Windows app.

On the one hand, it sounds like they're doubling-down on the new design, working to fix the problems many have complained about in it. But at the same time, they're making it easier to stick with the old Windows desktop, which now doesn't look like it's destined to as certain a death as it did in Windows 8's initial release.

Microsoft, you need to make up your mind. If you want to cater to those who don't want to move forward, release a new version of XP. The market would love that, I'm sure. But if you want to win the future, do everything you possibly can to make the new Windows 8 interface the very best it can be, with the best apps your teams can put out. Make stuff to showcase its power. And move legacy apps to the new interface; surely you can flip a Win32 window boarder switch to make the old apps fit in the new start screen sans their normal title bar and exit/minimize/maximize buttons, albeit without being customized for it.

Make up your mind, stick to your guns, and be opinionated. We might not all agree with the choices, but we'll sure respect you for it.

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.