Well, to start, despite your assertion (which I agree with, BTW) that nobody gives a shit about the UI on a server, it's undeniable that MS changed it in the first place when they explicitly put their UI-Abortion A.K.A. Metro on the Server SKU. In other words, the Win 7 interface was "good enough to get done what needs to be done while logged in to the server," so why bother changing the Server interface to Metro? My theory? It's just a big F U to the world, "See, you'll eat whatever shit we put in front of you, despite any high flying rhetoric to the contrary."

At most shops? Ditch server core. Microsoft is more likely to make a completely POSIX compatible operating system than most of these shitty vendors are to update their enterprise crapware in any meaningful way. And even if they did, I'm sure most of the enlightened corporate leadership would scoff at the notion of paying extra for, you know, actual positive changes. "What do you mean it makes managing our mission critical servers far more efficient? We've always done it this way, and the rep from Microsoft assured me that Metro is the wave of the future. Besides, I have a golf game scheduled in a few hours so I don't have time for this right now. No upgrade!!"

The sad truth is that it probably isn't.

You think the current mobile site is bad? Try the beta on your phone. Sweet raptor jesus, after the third nesting level or so the text is squeezed in a narrow little space and ends up being one or two words per line.

And there's no way to get it to show the "normal" layout on a mobile device, it seems to be based on window width somehow. For instance, if you take the beta site and shrink the window you can see it changing the layout to "suit" the smaller space, eventually ending up with this weird single column view that ends up being all you get on a phone. No, using "request desktop site" does nothing.

I suppose at the very least if they fixed the spacing issues the beta would be a worthwhile replacement for the current mobile site, which is, quite frankly, complete shit. I'll grant you that no matter what they do slashdotters are going to bitch, but the current outcry is far worse than for the current site, when it was a shitty beta.

Has anyone seen this?

Took the tour, laughed at gems like "A redesign 16 years in the making ... you know it's going to be good." LOL.

"Intuitive menus" that feature prominently the desolate ghettos that are the new "Channels," SlashBI, SlashCloud, etc. The rest is just a randomly sorted list of "popular topics."

"Social media integration" Oh, they've got Facebook spy bugs now! Too bad those dumb little buttons are probably blocked by a fairly large contingent of the userbase has those sad little abominations blocked (bonus points for IPTables or HOSTS based solutions!) they seem to exist solely to provide free advertising for cheap, lazy entities and to vigorously ejaculate banal content around the internet, like a giant mug of frothy, steaming semen. For god's sake, the stopwatch on my phone has a share feature, so you can litter your facebook with "My time is 00:01:22."

To top it all off, the tour ends with the text "The New Slashdot. Newsier. Nerdier." What the hell is so nerdy about a rotten abortion of an update that, so far as I can tell, the community nearly unilaterally despises? Hey advertisers! Come pay to advertise on a site that just alienated it's user base!

Maybe Michael Cristopeit and his merry band of sock puppets will make their triumphant return. With the Slashdot population devastated by the loss of all the constructive posters all that will be left is a wasteland of GNAA posts, MyCleanPC spam and those bizarre posts about eating poop.

Now that I think on it, some of the classic slashdot trolls are part of the sites charm and one of the reasons I kept coming back all these years. You just don't see Natalie Portman, naked and petrified, covered in hot grits anywhere else.

Speaking of trolls, I just realized I hadn't seen hide nor hair of everyone's good buddy APK. Another part of slashdot's weird charm, relegated to the ash heap of history. Slashdot, you will be missed!!

Better that than actually using the beta site!!

The other, more serious problem is that it is inevitable, barring Dice coming to their senses, that the Beta will eventually be released, and thus no more Classic mode at all, save for the shitty little "Classic Mode" they added which removes the pictures, leaving the rest of the god awful, butt-ugly, clusterfuck that is Slashdot Beta.

It won't. They're boiling the ACs first, then they plan in gradually increasing the number of users redirected to beta before finally cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Right, because nobody hates the new format, they're just mad there isn't a Classic Mode button at the top. It isn't as though the new version is almost entirely garbage or anything.