Inaction, sloth, moral turpitude
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Microsoft claims Windows 8 is the biggest overhaul since Windows 95
PERENNIAL SOFTWARE REDEVELOPER Microsoft has started to talk about the pre-release of its Windows 8 operating system.
Although Microsoft has shown off bits of Windows 8 at CES and at its BUILD conference, it now wants to promote its pre-release of Windows 8. Microsoft learned a lot from the build-up to the Windows 7 launch, with a long public beta period that paid dividends. It seems the firm might be following a similar pattern with Windows 8.
Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky said all the right words, claiming that Windows 8 is about "re-imagining Windows" and saying it is the first time Windows has been overhauled so extensively since Windows 95. Some would argue that the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista was far bigger, especially under the hood, nevertheless from what Microsoft has shown of Windows 8, the interface changes are big.
Sinofsky was also careful not to detail anything that might not be in the final release, saying, "We've certainly learned lessons over the years about the perils of talking about features before we have a solid understanding of our ability to execute." Microsoft was blasted for not including WinFS, a file system that it hyped as one of the pillars of Windows Vista yet pulled at the last minute.
Microsoft is banking on tablet devices to help push sales of Windows 8. To that end the company has been banging on about support for the ARM architecture, hoping that software developers and device makers will take notice.
Although Sinofsky didn't reveal anything particularly new in his blog post, we can expect Microsoft to start pushing out far more information about Windows 8. After all, most of the talk about operating systems these days is about Apple's IOS and Google's Android, not Windows. µ
Tags: Microsoft
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When Microsoft decides to launch an O/S that works then maybe I'll stop using XP.
If I buy into Win 7 then I have to upgrade certain software licenses. Move to 8 I'll have to do it all over again.
I'll stick with XP buy more on ebay and wait and see how Win 8 can't suck enough.
So they're going to overlay yet another user interface paradigm on top of the spaghetti code base that is Windows?
Face it, when you get done what you need to get done, a new user interface is just something you have to re-learn. You'd have to be a fool to "upgrade".
Among several PC's in our house, we have one running Windows 7, a new laptop. It's modestly amusing with the transparent windows, but frankly there's nothing it does that we wouldn't just as well have done without.
I think M$ should stop DOSing around, skip Windows 9 and base Windows X sorry 10 on UNIX. Hang on, someone else has already done that.
I think M$ should drop the name 'Windows' as well. Windows are transparent and made of glass which is a fragile and easily broken substance. Oh, that's a bit like Windows really. Hang on, better stay with the name 'Windows' then because I can't see things actually changing.
M$ should do something really forward thinking and revolutionary, like re-write Windows from the ground up.
They won't of course because, basically, they are backwards thinking Neanderthals and doorknobs.
System on Chip, ARM, Are New Wave of Smaller Devices. With such Fast Antenae, Really needs are better met with light system All in One Place, therefore Light Yet Fast.
Now BIG Units Desktop to S?erver are making More comples Integrated processor, C & G, Ig G isn't cool, System Cut from Chip, He,he. SB Going Server with that Cut & Is Good cpu. Just relatively expensive, still under few thou, for entire mash.
Yet to accomadate Soc, Better cpu/gpu core coming to sytle, Bulldozer, Bulldozer II, trinity All have Better Integrated system, in theory, so Better for Soc mobi plug in. -=8=- replaces hopes of mobi, that went USB to charge, offered software, yet, never quite made functional product. Now more integrated C&G pu might just make mobi charger, with heavy usb3 100 watt standard just out & software inside desktop that allows Soc to be Compatible in Deeper Way. Whole market has changed, Faster Desktop for Faster Wiiiii.....oink,oink.
Thanks Ms.Beta.
vondrashek @ 10 Ghz per....
now i've heard the hype i'll gladly pay £800 for the super-ultra-hyper professional edition
hahahahahahaaaaa
I think Mr. Black is correct. The point of Windows 8 is to have one OS across devices; PC, Media center, tablet, phone, all Windows 8.
The Windows desktop isn't the essential business device it used to be. Blackberry allowed business users to rely less on Windows PCs to stay connected. Android and iOS (and BB and WinMo) have advanced the situation. Laptops have replaced desktops for many business users, and smartphones and tablets are replacing laptops.
Windows/Intel systems aren't in any danger off dying off, but a significant portion of the money that would have been spent on Desktop PCs in the past will be spent on ARM based mobile devices in the near future. How much will depend on how well x86 can compete and what software is available for ARM. If Microsoft bets on x86 the software for ARM will still come, just from someone else, and they could suffer a huge loss. If they support both Intel may be unhappy, but so what?
Most mobile productivity software sucks. There are a few (Linux) mobile devices that will run OpenOffice, but it's still obviously meant for a larger screen, and it's not easily available on Android, iOS, BB, or WP7. Documents to go, Quick Docs, and MS Office Mobile are pathetic compared to a MS Office or OOo. Companies and government agencies have been reluctant to move away from MS Office 2003, but full MS Office on phones and tablets might be enough to push them forward. And at that point a tablet and dock could replace a desktop/laptop for a lot of people.
By all accounts Windows 8 has ribbons, not pretty ones, those ribbon interfaces with icons scattered like a mad womans crap all over the top of the screen. If it has ribbons they can shove it.
Trust Redmond to think of an interface that takes up a lot more vertical screen space just when all the monitor manufactureres have made screens to match video output with less depth than previous.
I see Windows 8 as really about merging the mobile and desktop platforms so the OS and Apps built for it can run on your desktop, Tablet, and Windows Mobile Phone. That way, it no longer matters what computing device you use, if everything works on all of them. Assuming this works, not only will the PC as we know it continue, but exciting new possibilities become achievable. Assuming it works as intended. I can wait for a Tablet to see if the second coming of Windows Tablets is worth it. If they come in at the right price point ($299) I'll take one.
They've taken Ubuntu and the Wine subsystem for backwards compatibility, but just as Apple did, having run to the limit of their own feeble OS, are converting to Unix.
By the way, W95 was a HUGE step BACK from the pre-emptive multitasking of 1993's OS/2 v2.1 that was easily XP equivalent. M$ sold dolts the same single-tasking DOS over and over.
Dai - Except for XP MS have always released OS's every few years (3.1 - 1992, 95, 98, 2000/ME). Problem is IT departments got used to not spending the money for 10 years with XP so are dragging their feet.
MS tried a radical overhall (which took years) with Vista and ended up with a half baked buggy mess, hence MS are not going down that route again anytime soon.
Come one, come all. Come see the latest and greatest INNOVATION from Redmond.
Come buy your necessary upgrade to the latest version of the Micr0$uck$ LoseDoze Operating System(O/S).
You'll get all the latest technology - including but not limited to: installing the internet onto your computer; browsing the web; point and click; cut and paste; multitasking; and all of the things that are so DIFFICULT if not downright IMPOSSIBLE to do with any other O/S.
And don't forget that you also get the latest in browser technology - Micr0$uck$ Internet Exploder! You get a browser that is tightly integrated with the O/S kernel - so much so that the kernel would cease to function if it were removed! But fear not, this doesn't add any security issues, because integrating the browser with the kernel is GOOD thing - you can so easily spawn new processes and install GOOD programs and render pretty images, it is SO worth it!
Windows 8 must be a joke.
Just W8 for it.
Big changes == more costs for IT departments - more training for both users and IT staff.
I can't wait for windows 8 since i've the best of windows7 therefore it seems to a great os.ps IT student
I can't wait for windows 8 since i've the best of windows7 therefore it seems to a great os.ps IT student
I don't want interface improvements. Programs provide my interface; Chrome, google Earth, Word, Foxit, etc etc. Windows sits in the background and allows me to launch programs when I let it. Other times I use Launchy. I don't need a new windows interface because I don't use the current one. I don't even use Explorer for exploring.
Lawrence writes: "Although Microsoft has shown off bits of Windows 8 at CES and at its BUILD conference"
But the BUILD conference is *next month*, so either you've mis-understood things or you have a TARDIS (at which point please tell us more about what they said at BUILD. Next week's winning lottery numbers wouldn't go amiss too...)
Hang on, Windows 8? Still getting used to 7 and the office PCs are all on XP. Do we REALLY need another OS or is this a me too bandwaggon of constantly updating because the kids are getting restless? Or does Microsoft want to pump their existing customers for more cash again, following the Apple business model of update, pump, update, pump? I feel that seems as there are so many XP machines about, the 10% bleeding edge crew will update on day 1 and that will be it, another 10 years of trying to convince the rest of us that new hardware to run the new and improved Windows 8 is the way to go