So as you all know by now, Microsoft has sent out a directive internally saying all employees should cease and desist from calling Metro – Metro.
Well, here’s the deal – I’m not a Microsoft employee so I will continue to call it what I like and for now, it’s Metro.
The truth is, whether you like Windows 8 or not, Metro as a name just works. It’s stylish, commonly understood, looks good in print and is already on a ton of documents.
The biggest obstacle for me though is, after calling it Metro for so long, honestly, nothing else works.
I’m not even going to go through the long short list of ridiculous alternatives that have been floated for Metro in the last couple of weeks. There was a good and long run on Twitter about Windows 8 and Metro and believe me, the jokes were good.
I’m not even going to take the easy cheap shot and start to yell about how could they have screwed this up that badly. Those articles have been written already.
I just think that Metro is the best name for the new tile based interface and I will continue to use the moniker until it doesn’t make any sense.
The way I see it, Microsoft have a few alternatives here.
- License the name in a limited manner for use only for Windows 8.
- Stay on this track and find a name we laugh at and ignore
I suppose at some point they might find a name that actually works and I will have to get off my (comfortable) soap box. Until then, I will rely on some words of wisdom that have become comforting to me.
Metro is Microsoft’s design language. They call it Metro because it’s modern and clean. It’s fast and in motion. It’s about content and typography and it’s entirely authentic.
I have to agree.