Robert Pogson

A long time user of M$’s OS wrote Steven Sinofsky on the problems of the Metro Interface and mobile “7″ and gave an example of managing files. Sinofsky replied as if it were not the job of the OS to manage files…

D:
“Can’t tell you how much I’m hating Metro. No one likes Win Mobile 7 either, maybe you should tell Steve Ballmer that its flogging a dead horse?
When you are working with two explorer panes – as we all have done for years, how do you suppose it goes in a two pane usage for handling files. You never understood that with breadcrums and now make it worse with the ribbon. Tell me, should I sacrifice a depth view by placing windows horizontally but losing file and folder space in each window, or should I just accept that no one around you knows how to build a decent UI? (see pics) Neither explorer works well, and both methods are worse than earlier file handling. I am sorry but they are. “
Steve:
“I appreciate the feedback.  I think we might disagree on what constitutes the broad usage of file management and what you consider broad usage, and/or professional.  Keep in mind the feedback you are seeing is not representative of a broad base at all but is almost exclusively people who do a very large amount of file management.”

see The Sinofsky Letters: Defenestrated Windows overlord corresponds • The Register.

Steve, both of you, my Little Woman is just an ordinary user of PCs. She runs few applications, does a lot of web-browsing but takes pictures of everything using smart phone, digital camera and web-cam: moonrise, houses, children, relatives, friends… She accumulates thousands of pictures per annum and has ~20K so far on her PC. You can bet she would tolerate no inflexibility in her file-manager. Fortunately she uses Debian GNU/Linux with XFCE4 and she can have as many windows as she wants open to her file-system as she sorts things out, categorizes them, edits them and inserts them in documents, e-mails, and social websites. File-management has been one of the few things that every user of a PC since the 1980s has appreciated. Who are you to limit what a user can do with a PC out of the box? Who are you to force on the world a crippled OS limiting what people can do with their files?

I welcome the time when your OS will not be the default on retail shelves everywhere. At this rate 2013 will be the world’s declaration of independence from M$.