Stardock CEO apie tai nori papasakoti ;)
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The release last week of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been an 
interesting one for Microsoft. Users are trying to figure out the Metro 
interface as well as the desktop UI. One thing that users have missed is the 
familiar Start menu in the desktop environment. While there are third party 
hacks that can create an approximation of the Start menu, developer Stardock 
decided to create a free Windows 8 app, Start8, that puts in a Start menu 
for the Windows 8 desktop screen.

We got a chance to ask Stardock CEO Brad Wardell some questions about 
Start8, how he feels about Windows 8 in general, whether or not Stardock 
will make more Windows 8 apps and products, and more.

First, you have been vocal on your own personal blog site that while you 
think Windows 8 is great, the Metro interface is not. What is it 
specifically about the Metro UI that you don't care for?

It's a lot of different things. There are two big things in particular: 
First, Windows 8 is trying to jam two completely different user experiences 
into the same OS and make the user jump between them arbitrarily. Second, 
the Metro UI is not well suited to enabling users to organize their "stuff". 
PC users tend to have a lot of programs installed and the Metro UI tends to 
make it very hard to differentiate what is and isn't important. You can pin 
things to always be available visible but that's about it. There is no 
"folder" concept in Metro to organize your things.

Do you think Steven Sinofsky and the Microsoft team will be making any major 
changes to the Metro interface before the final commercial version of 
Windows 8 is released?

I am confident they are. Mr. Sinofsky is one of the best software engineers 
in history. What concerns me is how things even got to where they are in the 
Consumer Preview. The user experience is objectively terrible. I saw a 
prominent journalist say that it "only" takes 4 steps to shut down the 
machine, what was the big deal? The big deal is that a lot of basic things 
are now multiple steps. I use a PC to get work done, not to battle with the 
OS interface.

Microsoft has chosen to not offer the traditional Start menu for the desktop 
UI of Windows 8. Is this a bad idea or should users simply try a new way of 
looking at accessing their Windows 8 apps?

I'm not married to the Start menu. If someone comes up with a new, better 
way to get to their stuff, then I'm all for it. What's a bad idea is making 
getting to your stuff a disjointed experience that involves extra steps and 
is inconsistent.

How hard was it to develop Start8?

It took us about a day to make the prototype. It's really just a test app to 
see if we could, if we had to, bring Metro onto the desktop if necessary. I 
think most Windows 8 testers think there's a lot to like about Metro, they 
just don't like being jerked out of the desktop. If we can let users stay in 
one environment with one consistent usage paradigm then the migration to 
Windows 8 would go a lot smoother. Ideally, Microsoft will do this. Users 
shouldn't have to install third party stuff to make Windows work.

So far what has been the response to Start8 since it launched in terms of 
both downloads and comments from users?

It's pretty polarized. You have the people who, I think, sincerely believe 
that people just need to "get used" to Metro and think something like Start8 
is just a crutch for people not willing to adapt. And then you have the 
people, people like me, who don't have a problem with Metro but just want to 
use their PC to get work done and want to reduce the hoops one has to jump 
through to get that work done.

Does Stardock plan to put in any improvements and new features to Windows 8?

It depends on the final version. My fear is that if Microsoft doesn't 
address the problems we have now that people will stay on Windows 7. I've 
seen Microsoft advocates on forums say that people who don't have touch or 
have large displays or multiple monitors should just stay on 7. That's 
terrible advice. There's a lot of really good technology in Windows 8 that 
will bring the computing experience forward. It would be tragic to get held 
back simply because the shell it's packaged in is problematic.

Will Stardock offer up any other free Windows 8 apps during its pre-release 
period?

Yea, we already have a bunch of stuff we're playing around with such as 
having Metro apps in a window on the desktop, Tile "Groups" in Metro, lots 
of customization stuff. But we'll hold off until we see if Microsoft is 
going to fix these things themselves.

Stardock has certainly made most of its money by selling Windows 
applications such as Object Desktop. When the final version of Windows 8 is 
released will Stardock launch its own paid Windows apps and if so what can 
you tell us about them?

The path we've taken in the past few years has been to release a lot of our 
software for free that addresses what most users want and then offer a 
version that had additional features. That's how programs like Fences and 
Tiles work which are very popular. So I think you'll see more of that in the 
future.

Will Stardock be using the Windows Store to sell these apps or will it come 
up with its own way of selling the apps to customers?

It depends on the requirements Microsoft puts in place. Our games probably 
will be. But most of our non-game software works by extending the Windows 
experience which I'm not sure what Microsoft's policy will be.

Will the company release any apps that will be made strictly for the Metro 
touch interface?

Almost certainly. Metro on the tablet is a a very good experience. It's 
compelling. WinRT is compelling. And the use of HTML 5 makes it a lot easier 
for us to justify developing things for it.

Will Stardock release any apps for Windows 8 running on ARM-based hardware?

Same as above.

Finally, this is perhaps the single biggest change in Windows from Microsoft 
since at least Windows 95, if not ever. Do you ultimately think this will be 
a successful launch for Microsoft?

It depends on what they do with the feedback on the Preview. If they don't 
address the fundamental usability issues they've introduced to people who 
expect to use Windows as a PC desktop OS, then I think they're in for some 
serious trouble.