I was looking at some whistler and neptune screenshots last weekend when I noticed that some design elements resemble those from the Developer Preview.

Example 1:



Look at the icons, they use a few colors, and although WIN 8 DP uses only one color with black outline for metro icons, you can see that these icons in Whistler also use only use simple lines in their design(no gradients or effects).

Example 2:



Self Explanatory

Example 3:



Watercolor also shares some design features with WDP basic theme.

What do you guys think about this? Did Microsoft take a few elements of Whistler\Neptune and put them into Windows 8 DP?
(I know metro originated from WMC, but that had a way more glass\aero look)

1. Don't see anything super-simmilar...

2. Nothing special either...

3. There is simmilar simplicity to them...

I do see the similarity in some respects.

Then again.

Neptune Activity Centers -> Windows Media Center -> Zune -> Windows Phone 7 -> Windows 8 Metro

i can't see anything here with the same design elements

I noticed that one, too. In fact, I commented on it in one of the YouTube videos I did recently (I've been tracking the development of XP as a video series - feel free to check them out (username is MajorSky17)).

Thanks for the other screenshots - especially the ones of the "Back" buttons! Very intriguing...