Farewell to the start button in Windows 8: The end of an era?

From the dour gray of Windows 95, through green grass on the blue bar of Windows XP and blue orbs Windows Vista and Windows 7, the start button has been constant and unchanged for over 15 years. The button that during all this time timidly greeted most inexperienced user invites you to discover the system to start using it, as its name suggests and is the button, and now suddenly Windows 8, will disappear.

And is that as you approach the first beta of the next major version of the desktop operating system Microsoft is gradually beginning to know some details of the new features included. The most relevant and we saw when we analyzed the Developer Preview presented in September at the BUILD, then we could see another set of features we could see first hand at CES and the Ballmer keynote . But the ultimate shock and has left a few is that, effectively, and under the Metro interface, the button disappears from Windows startup.

We could argue for paragraphs about whether a change is right or wrong, whether it is the right move or will be a shot in the foot ahead of the users life more inexperienced that they will be looking like crazy in the corner bottom left of the screen, but the simple reality is that, as any change that affects many, some will like the change (me among them) and some will hate it and find it absurd.

Most interesting, however, is the meaning behind something as distinctive and vital as his well-known Windows start button (Microsof spent almost $ 300 million in copyright Start Me Up Rolling Stones to promote it). Because they are not fresh news, exactly, but Windows 8 will be introduced more radical change we've ever seen in the operating system.

Thus, from a single centralized Start, spent an entire interface, the interface meters, where if you look each tile, or grid, is itself a part of the old menu What applications access a list uncomfortable when I have them in large format full color?. Metro has two distinct parts, first you are more focused on touch devices, with large squares, and the other the traditional desktop, which is accessed as if it were an application. Within the desktop, Windows 7 Super Bar, which if sustained, will maintain all its functions and will have a special part that is activated when the mouse and would comply, but is not very clear yet, functions similar to those of start menu.

While waiting for details of performance and usability, Windows 8 will be a great product, with every detail starting to feel less and less doubt, but it is important to note that such a radical change may cause some users begin to turn away and stay in older versions, similar to what happened with Vista and XP. The Redmond move in quicksand while trying to end one era and properly support the foot on solid ground to begin the next, wait for the beta announced for later this month to get a better idea.