TIFKAM vs. Windows Store: Where’s the Juice?

For the past week or so, I’ve been batting around an acronym for the Windows 8 default GUI. TIFKAM stands for “the interface formerly known as Metro,” and is gaining currency in some circles as a way to talk about something that is still groping for a catchy name. Of course, Microsoft controls the nomenclature involved, but even they seem a bit hesitant to hang a new moniker on the tile-based and color-heavy Windows 8 GUI used outside the legacy desktop environment.

Because the Windows Store is where TIFKAM apps live MS makes reference by location.

But we just got a clue which way the folks in Redmond are leaning with the re-labeling of one of its Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) credentials. As of late last week the certification previously named MCSD: Metro Style Apps has been recast as MCSD: Windows Store Apps. I think this represents a neat way to sidestep the naming issue of what to call the interface by referring to where the resulting apps live instead of the GUI itself – namely, in the Windows Store online (a part of the Start screen layout for both Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 by default).

Whether or not the ‘Softies will come up with a nifty name for TIFKAM is up to them, I guess. But in the meantime, we have some idea which way they’re leaning!