Matias Duarte is disappointed that Windows 10 works just like XP

Matias Duarte: designer extraordinaire, flamboyant shirt aficionado, r/androidcirclejerk’s object of adoration.

If there’s any one person that is responsible for the way Android looks and feels, it’s Matias Duarte, Google’s VP of Design. Under his watch, Android transitioned from a hotchpotch of mediocre design elements to the fresh, modern, and unitary design language known as Material Design.

In a recent podcast with Josh Topolsky, Duarte revealed that he moved beyond Android to oversee the adoption of Material Design across Google’s many products.

We know, for instance, that Chrome OS will adopt more Material elements in the future. And, according to several reports, Google plans to merge Chrome OS and Android in the future, creating one “super OS” that works on PCs, in addition to smartphones, TVs, and wearables.

Android is on a collision course with Windows 10. But what does Matias Duarte think about Microsoft’s latest? Apparently, he’s not impressed.

In what Duarte himself called “overly clever tweetbait,” the Google executive expressed disappointment with the functionality of Windows 10, which isn’t very different from the venerable Windows XP.

Duarte was partially joking, and he was quick to clarify that he’s fine with the appearance of Windows 10, but not with the lack of progress in terms of features and functionality.

In fact, it seems like Windows 8 was more to Duarte’s tastes. For Windows 10, Microsoft famously reversed some of the radical changes it implemented in Windows 8, in order to make it work like previous versions of the OS.

Why is Matias Duarte taking a swipe at Windows now? It’s possible that, fresh off his podcast debut, Duarte is really just looking to increase his Twitter engagement. Or to troll his followers.

Or maybe he is talking about Windows because he spends his days thinking about what a modern PC operating system should be and how Android could leapfrog Windows. If that’s the case, Duarte has his work cut out. Android is absolutely great on smartphones. But it’s lacking when it comes to tablets, and nowhere nearly ready to take on Windows on PCs.

Do you agree with Matias Duarte’s take on Windows 10? Or is this jab undeserved?