Rumor: Windows Blue to Maintain Metro User Interface

It feels like Windows 8 has hardly had time to breathe since being let loose by Microsoft in late October, but already the rumors for the company's next OS, "Windows 9", codenamed "Blue", are beginning to spread. On Chinese forum PCBeta, member and Microsoft alpha/beta tester Maxy has given some insight of where the OS currently stands. For those who are not too happy with what Windows 8 brought to the table, you may not be too pleased with 9, either.

According to the post, Windows 9 will share the same Metro interface - or "Modern UI" - as Windows 9. It also appears from the post that the general aesthetics of the OS will remain largely unchanged as well, with no Aero in sight, and clean, flat edges retained from Windows 8 (something I admit to hating at first, but preferring after some use).

It's worth noting, however, that while the current alpha does include the Modern UI, it doesn't mean too much in the grand scheme of things. Microsoft's first alphas traditionally look no different than the RTM of the prior OS. Windows 8's alpha, for example, looked little different than Windows 7. There's still a lot of time to go in the development cycle, and you may recall that it wasn't until well into Windows 8's development that "Metro" was finally unveiled.

As Microsoft talked about a couple of weeks ago, the company's found that people are finally "getting used to" the Metro interface, and if those findings happen to keep up, then there's little doubt that we will see it reappear in Windows 9. If things change, however, and Microsoft is simply being coy at the moment, anything can happen. I personally know of people who've been skipping over Windows 8 in hopes that Windows 9 would be "better", but as it stands today, it looks like we'll be dealing with an evolution of the current design.