On: Microsoft abandon Metro name due to legal challenge

[notatoad]

I like this. 'metro' is unnecessary jargon, a design language does not need to have a trademark name. Just referring to it as what it is makes a lot more sense.

[ryanwhitney → notatoad]

I have mixed feelings. The Metro UI described one specific portion of the Windows 8 interface, which gives it a use for differentiating between metro-style and old-windows-style. It seemed like good branding. And, one that could be shared across platforms.

Now it's "Window 8 Phone featuring Windows 8-style UI" where the unique Metro branding could have served well.

Then again, I noticed a friend had Windows 8 loaded on his laptop the other day, and he had no idea what I was talking about when I asked how "metro" was

[panacea → notatoad]

Why can't a design language have a name (not necessarily a trademark)?

It can be used to differentiate it from what it's not. Programmers use names for everything, why can't a design have a name?

Apple had the aqua visual style, that is no longer with us.

[commandar → panacea]

Wouldn't this be more akin to Cocoa and Carbon in the Apple world? Metro goes a bit deeper than just the UI layer, as I understand it.

[jopt → commandar]

Not quite. Cocoa is really just an Objective-C API, though it's coupled with Aqua through Xcode and recent innovations like AutoLayout, whereby HIG policies are enforced by code. Metro seems to be more than that.

[briandear → notatoad]

They could all it Windows Metropolitan Sevice Pack for Workgroups Infringement Edition.