Microsoft unveils Windows 8

  • Thread starter Thread starter kingrob
  • Start date Start date
K

kingrob

Guest
There'll be two kinds of applications for Windows 8, one that runs in a traditional desktop, and the other pseudo-mobile apps based on HTML5 and Javascript, but both environments -- rather, the entire OS -- have been designed from the ground up for touchscreen use. Keyboard and mouse will still be options for both sets of programs, but there are multiple virtual sets of keys for different form factors, including a split keyboard for vertical slate use. Multitasking is simply a matter of swiping running apps into the center of the screen, and you can pull windows partway to "snap" them in place alongside other windows -- even mixing and matching traditional desktop programs with web apps simultaneously (like Twitter alongside your spreadsheet). There's a new version of Internet Explorer 10 (which runs Silverlight) and an app store built into the touchscreen interface, along with integrated services like Office 365. Microsoft says the new OS will run on laptops, tablets and desktops when it appears -- whenever that might be.

All Things D didn't have any details on when we'll get pricing or availability, but we're looking at some Intel Atom-based demo units on stage right now, and Microsoft says it will have ARM designs (the OS will support NVIDIA, TI and Qualcomm) viewable on the Computex show floor, and more will be revealed at the Build Windows developer conference in September. We should note that "Windows 8" is just a codename for what we're seeing here -- "we'll figure out the real name in due time," Sinofsky told the crowd -- but we don't see much harm in calling it Windows 8 for now.
Click to expand...

Full story + video here : http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/microsoft-unveils-windows-8-tablet-prototypes/
 
Yay, Windows 7 is only barely out and they're already pushing the next one. They won't make the same mistake as with XP again soon, the same OS and thus no $$$ for almost a decade? Hell no.
 
I can see some issues coming.... big ones, esp when it comes to end users.

X86 and ARM architecture differs like day and night, running the same application on both is going to be next to impossible, unless people code in .net and .net uptake in the real world is slow.

This might speed the transition up but I dont see everyone switching over night. Also there is functions that can only be coded outside the framework so it will require 2 separate applications. Try explain that to end users that cant figure out why the application wont run. We already struggle to explain 32 bit vs 64 bit, and this is worse, you can not include both into one installer.
 
Yes that is an issue - that most apps won't have been recompiled for ARM.

Another issue for me is that they've just sort of tacked on the touch-friendly stuff on top of regular Windows 7, which still isn't touch-friendly at all. You can see it in the video when they switch to Excel, it's identical to Excel on Windows 2010.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/jun11/06-01corporatenews.aspx
 
I can see Windows 7 running for as long - or even longer - than XP in the corporate world. We are still struggling to roll-out 7 and there is so much work going on to get the 32 to 64 bit upgrade issues sorted that I cannot see a jump to 8 happening. We might be heading back to the old days of Consumer Windows (98/8) vs Corporate Windows (NT/7).
 
Noooooo!!! they going to move metro onto the PC as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I

Come on Microsoft, the world is moving to 3D with movies, TV and games all over the place and you go a step backwards. Metro UI looks like some 8bit 2D UI that belongs in the 80's. I also HATE the feeling it gives me when crap continues off the screen.

Guess to each there own.
 
Def each to their own.. I like Metro... think its nice and slick and works bloody well.

As for the comment about Excel.. of course that hasn't been redesigned for a touch interface yet... this is just a preview demo of where MS is going with Windows 8, not a presentation of Windows 8 in a finished form.
 
Yay, another Windows Millennium/Vista.

I'll wait for the next version before bothering to take a look.
 
lol; MS actually retracted that statement. No official release at all, and Balmer is in for some doodoo.

In the end Win8 will probably come out next year, but Win7 is the best selling Windows OS yet, and they would like to ride that wagon for a while longer.
 
bin3 said:
lol; MS actually retracted that statement. No official release at all, and Balmer is in for some doodoo.

In the end Win8 will probably come out next year, but Win7 is the best selling Windows OS yet, and they would like to ride that wagon for a while longer.
Click to expand...
They probably only release the ARM version next year.
 
I see it is like I feared, reading comments on the net people seem to think ARM vs X86 is like Intel vs AMD

They have noooooooooo idea :)
 
BeVonk! said:
I can see Windows 7 running for as long - or even longer - than XP in the corporate world. We are still struggling to roll-out 7 and there is so much work going on to get the 32 to 64 bit upgrade issues sorted that I cannot see a jump to 8 happening. We might be heading back to the old days of Consumer Windows (98/8) vs Corporate Windows (NT/7).
Click to expand...

I fully agree with you....Windows 7 will last even longer than Windows XP in the corporate world.

I'm using it with Office 2010 at work & it is an absolute joy. Just the quick and easy ways to get to your work files via jumplists (quite nice if you work with 10 to 14 different Excel files all the time), the brilliant way the newly designed taskbar works - and how fast it is, really makes me think it's the best designed Windows ever.

Been using it now for quite some time - and it has never ever crashed.
 
Quite a lot will when the tablets runnign ARM chipsets start coming onto the market if you ask me...

And if they've coded them properly in the first place it won't be a big job to do so...
 
ToxicBunny said:
Quite a lot will when the tablets runnign ARM chipsets start coming onto the market if you ask me...

And if they've coded them properly in the first place it won't be a big job to do so...
Click to expand...

My thoughts as well.

Personally I think Windows 7 is the perfect OS for desktops & laptops, I'm sure Windows 8 will be that OS for tablets.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Quite a lot will when the tablets runnign ARM chipsets start coming onto the market if you ask me...

And if they've coded them properly in the first place it won't be a big job to do so...
Click to expand...

They will have to if MS go that route, my take is that MS won't just release ARM version without intel.
64 bit takeup is still a headache for some and that's more backward compatible. So is Win 8 being a tablet OS specifically MS' strategy? Or just your take?
 
MS have never mentioned releasing for one architecture without the other... where did you get that idea from?

Win8 is an OS that is touch friendly from the ground up in the UI... that does not relegate it purely to the tablet, or distance itself from the desktop in anyway, if anything its the best of both worlds really.... plus what we've been shown so far are just ideas of where its going rather than anything even vaguely approaching the final product.
 
I'm hardly a software guy, but I think what is going to happen is that the touch portion of the OS is going to be common to both tablet (ARM/x86) versions and have apps coded in HTML5, and then the desktop portion of the OS is going to be x86 only, and some non-html5 software will probably have some sort of sync with the tablet apps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X