Well, this is going to be weird. After calling Microsoft’s radically wonderful UI design “Metro” for a couple of years now, Microsoft is said to be ditching the name for legal reasons. So now what the hell do we call it?
According to a source of The Verge, “who wishes to remain anonymous”, Microsoft is telling developers to stop calling Metro things Metro because Metro is already taken by some cranky German company called Metro. Metro? Metro! So do we need a new term for the common DNA between Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox, Outlook and Office? Subway?
Or, as is extremely likely, we’ll all just go on calling it Metro, because German Metro can’t sue us all at once. I am Spartacus.
Update: A Microsoft spokesperson has issued a statement on the matter:
We have used Metro style as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines. As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialogue to a broad consumer dialogue we will use our commercial names.”