Firefox Demos Prototype Metro Interface 197
In order to provide an alternative to IE on Windows 8, Firefox needs a Metro UI. Luckily, development of a Metro interface for Firefox is well underway. The current build reuses the Android interface XUL (by virtue of being based on Fennec). The latest test release features lots of platform integration support: "We have Metro snap working, you can snap another Metro app to the right or left of Firefox and continue browsing.
We also have HTML file input controls tied up to the Metro file picker. ... implemented the Windows 8 search contract, you can use the Search Charm from any screen on Windows 8. If you enter a URL, it will be loaded. If you enter anything else, it will be searched in your default search engine. We also implemented the Windows 8 share contract, you can use the Share Charm from any Firefox page to share that page to another application. Once you select the Share Charm it will list the applications you can share to, for example: Mail, Twitter, or Facebook." If you're interested in following development, the team has made a Mercurial repository available.
Further background is provided by the first and second posts in the series.
Re:And the march continues (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice trolling.
Normal programs will run just fine in Desktop mode on Win8. However, if you want your program to be on the new default dashboard interface (Metro) then it has to be a Metro app. And since both IE and Chrome can appear there, it makes absolute sense that FF should have the feature included as well.
If you want to be a full replacement to IE, you need to be a full replacement to IE, and that means showing up in the system wherever IE can show up. If you actually RTFA, you'll see they're talking about hooking into Win8's built-in browser search and sharing hooks, as well as showing how easy it is to add a Metro interface to FF because of the already existing theming layer within FF.
Re:Sharing data between Metro and desktop versions (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft fans keep using this defense to justify everything wrong with the customer preview. They're not going to unify IE, the control panel, and all the other redundant thingsin time for October. Microsoft is full steam ahead on this trainwreck.
Re:I wish they wouldn't (Score:5, Insightful)
Because a normal desktop UI doesnt work so hot on a tablet, which in the future are bound to replace a big portion of the desktop market. Hybrids (like the Transformer Prime), with a 2 mode tablet/desktop interface, like Windows 8, could seriously replace lap-tops for everyone except serious developers and graphic designers/3d artists/CAD/etc that need a lot of horse power.
Sticking to desktop-only UI would be suicide for Microsoft. Metro works quite fine if you look at it from a tablet point of view.
This stupid society thing needs to stop. NOW. (Score:0, Insightful)
These user interfaces and trends I'm seeing are so fucking dumb it makes me want to puke.
Not because of what the user interfaces are (though they're downright hideous and borderline unusable, if not woefully unproductive to use), but because of what this new mentality represents.
We've gone from a society of "You're not fucking good enough, go learn something and get better at it" to "It's OK to be stupid, you don't need to know how this works to use it". We've all been equipped with this marvellous organ called a BRAIN, and it is capable of LEARNING. Yet these big fucking corporations are effectively telling us that we don't need to use our brains anymore- because they're going to give us user interfaces and computers so simple an ape could run them. They've done all the thinking ON YOUR BEHALF, and if you actually think you might want to think for yourself for a change- you can't anymore, because they've eliminated all the options and settings that any reasonable device should ship with.
News flash, using computing equipment is not a right.
It's a fucking privilege, one that you earn by KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING first.
This bullshit where we need to target the idiots of the idiots and make products for THEM rather then the users who know how to actually do shit needs to stop. We are not all "big babies", we don't need these fucking Fischer Price user interfaces to get shit done. We're grown adults.
If you don't want to use your brain and figure out how to use a computer (god forbid you should actually learn something), then fuck you. And fuck the corporations who think you're suddenly this untapped user base just waiting to be exploited, because now I'm going to suffer for your goddam stupidity.
-AC
Re:And the march continues (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to think that the Desktop paradigm will survive the RTM.
It won't.
Have fun with Metro, Windows guys.
--
BMO
It will. Microsoft will not make existing apps incompatible with Windows 8.
Stop spewing lame FUD.
Re:And the march continues (Score:5, Insightful)
Regular Metro apps can only be distributed via Windows Store, and, yes, that includes Apple-style app approval model (though it doesn't have some of the more nasty Apple rules, such as "no competing apps" - so other Metro-only browsers are fine).
That said, browsers are special-cased. More specifically, if a desktop application is installed and registers itself as a handler for http: URI schema, and the user selects that application as the default browser, then that app is given the opportunity to also provide a Metro version. Basically, it can provide a tile that appears in Metro home screen, can pin secondary tiles there (for bookmarks, web apps etc), and when launched, can detect if it's being launched from the tile or from an URL in another Metro app, and can decide whether to launch in desktop or Metro mode (e.g. IE10 has that as an option - always desktop / always Metro / same as invoker). This is called a "Metro style enabled Desktop Browser" - this document [microsoft.com] (.docx) covers the details.
Now, because this is still a desktop app, it is installed by usual means - an MSI or other kind of installer, or even just copy it over (so long as it can register itself to handle http:/// [http] URLs on launch or something). So, it's not subject to Windows Store app approval policy. It's also much less limited with respect to what it can do, compared to a Metro-only app - the sandbox mainly restricts it from doing stuff that only makes sense on the desktop when it's in Metro mode, but otherwise it has same permissions as a desktop app. This means that they can JIT-compile code - kinda important for JS - and share bookmarks and history with desktop.
Re:Sharing data between Metro and desktop versions (Score:5, Insightful)
So... This thread has four AC posts: Two complaining and two defending Microsoft. The post that points out Windows 8 is still in development (in response to a post about the current feature set) is modded Troll. Ah Slashdot, I remember when you were a semi-technical forum. At this point I'm thinking about getting a Facebook account. The worms will expose me to more technology than these threads.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
because desktop computers != tablets.
Re:And the march continues (Score:5, Insightful)
Regular Metro apps can only be distributed via Windows Store
That is horrifying.
Re:And the march continues (Score:2, Insightful)
Last things first
The site has lost readership thanks to haters like you who attack anyone who dares to express an alternate viewpoint.
No, this site has lost its readership because it is stuff that doesn't matter that happened last week. This can be tied directly to the "vote for a story" model that was implemented. Things appear everywhere else and then show up on Slashdot last.
Talk about leap of logic. This is a company that bends over for backwards compatibility.
Where were you the last time the driver model changed and printers, scanners, and soundcards (lol, Creative X-Fi) wound up in landfills across the fruited plain? Where were you when Microsoft finally said to the game publishers "Fuck you, you're not writing to hardware anymore"? Microsoft, has, and does, break compatibility when they feel the need to. Paul's article puts an emphasis on this with Metro. The thing is that you have to actually read Paul Thurrott's article and understand just exactly what he's trying to say. He's saying that Metro is a "bet the company" move and there's no going back.
Lastly, I have never said that 7 sucks. You can go through my entire posting history if you wish. It's not just "now."
Indeed, here is me saying nice things about Windows 7.
http://investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=1911&mn=109089&pt=msg&mid=9645884 [investorvillage.com]
Now get stuffed.
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BMO
Re:And the march continues (Score:4, Insightful)
This has been known for close to a year now.
Anyway, after Apple is swimming in cash in their walled garden, what did you expect? Everyone wants a piece of that pie now that they've shown you can make it.