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Windows 8 logo: Goodbye flag. Hello... window.

The Windows 8 logo, unveiled today, replaces the multicolored flag with a blocky, blue window. 

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Microsoft
The evolution of the Windows logo, with the new Windows 8 design at top.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Windows 8, the latest version of the popular Microsoft OS, is set to launch later this month as a "consumer preview." As we've noted in the past, Windows 8 is meant to be a multi-platform OS, compatible with tablets and laptops, that incorporates a tiled interface called Metro. One of the first steps in transitioning to Windows 8 was to get rid of the Start button, that mainstay of so many generations of Windows operating systems. 

Now Microsoft has announced that it will rejigger its logo, as well, tossing out the multicolored flag in favor of a blocky, blue window, designed by the firm Pentagram. In a blog post, Microsoft's Sam Moreau said the new logo is a better fit for the "Metro style design principles" – and a "beautiful metaphor" for modern computing, to boot. 

"[W]ith the new logo we wanted to celebrate the idea of a window, in perspective. Microsoft and Windows are all about putting technology in people's hands to empower them to find their own perspectives," Moreau writes. "And that is what the new logo was meant to be. We did less of a re-design and more to return it to its original meaning and bringing Windows back to its roots – reimagining the Windows logo as just that – a window." 

The logo, pictured above, is certainly more basic than the blurred flutter of Windows 98, or the red, yellow, blue and green square of Windows 7. 

So what is the tech world saying about the design? Well, reactions have been mixed. "OK, I get that the logo should match the Windows 8 Metro format. Microsoft is tile happy," writes Larry Dignan of ZD Net. "I also get that the previous Windows logos looked more like flags than Windows. Unfortunately for me the Windows 8 logo gives me a window, but I want to jump out of it. It. Is. Just. Too. Much. Metro. Design. For. Me. To. Handle." 

Fair enough. What do you think? Drop us a line in the comments section below. 

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