Microsoft Announces First Real Details About Windows 8
Microsoft Announces First Real Details About Windows 8
Posted 06/01/2011 at 3:59pm
| by Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo
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So, this is the new Start screen for Windows 8. It looks a lot like Windows Phone Live Tiles. And hey, that looks like an app store.
The whole point of Windows 8, which is just a codename, is to be one OS that'll run on regular computers or on tablets. So Windows 8 will run two kinds of applications: A standard Windows application ("It's Windows. Everything just runs," says Windows chief Steven Sinofsky) and an almost mobile-like app, written in HTML5 and JavaScript, which Microsoft is calling a "new platform." And of course, there's IE10 underpinning those apps. All apps can be viewed in this tile-based UI, which Josh from TIMN says is, "Very impressive. It looks super fast." You can totally see the Windows Phone influence on the interface, from the tiles to the touch keyboard, which even has a "thumbs" mode. (Sinofsky tells All Things D, "We were clearly influenced ourselves by phones.") The animations and gestures and multitasking are all pretty damn smooth looking, as you can see in this demo video.
Better still, it requires fewer resources than Windows 7, which is kind of crazy. Which all sounds great. And sort of what I expected. What sounds (and looks) a little dicey is that the awesome, modern tile UI is basically just a skin over Windows. The rest of the "classic Windows desktop" is still there, looking underneath, albeit adjusted to be more touch friendly with "fuzzy hit targeting," so regular Windows applications will work with touch or keyboard/mouse. But the two things together looks like a miscreant experience, even in Microsoft's demo. The idea of running real, full Windows apps on a tablet (or anywhere) isn't a bad one, but it looks pretty gross and weird in practice.
We'll apparently see a lot more in September at Microsoft's Build conference.
Microsoft's official list of new features shown off today:
• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10
We're following Microsoft demo, live, (so expect this post to be changed and updated with more stuff).
Gizmodo is the world’s most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd.
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July 28, 2011 at 12:33pm
I don't like this at all. If this is the future of computing, kill me now. These fucking tablets are ruining everything. Tablets are just a fucking fad that will drop in another year.
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July 05, 2011 at 8:54pm
IMHO Windows 7 is "Windows done right". I'm not opposed to having something even better, but I don't really feel a need for anything new and different on my desktop and laptop computers. To me, it would make sense for Microsoft to first design a separate OS for smartphones and tablets, and then use that as the model for a new version of Windows for PCs (both with and without touchscreens).
I have a bad feeling that a new look-and-feel that's designed for touchscreens will be so different that a lot of current Windows users -- myself included -- will refuse to use it initially. Of my family's six computers, not one has a touchscreen display; and since five of the six are LCDs bought within the last three years, I expect them to last quite awhile longer before requiring replacement. Will the average business feel enough of a need forWindows 8 to replace all its current monitors and laptops just to get touchscreens, or will they wait until they have amortized the existing hardware?
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June 10, 2011 at 7:29pm
@Silencer
"PC gaming is what determines OS adoption. PlayOnLinux and Wine are the hope of Linux."
PC gaming is just one aspect that determines OS adoption. The other aspects are industry-leading third-party applications and HTPC features, both of them are unmatched in the Linux environment.
Many people use Windows for these reasons and not all of them are necessarily gamers.
Also, Wine is, at best an unreliable way to install windows-based programs and this is coming from someone who had experiences with it.
Trooper_One
June 10, 2011 at 11:17am
I hope there's a way to turn these 'customization' (e.g. facebook notification, blah blah blah) off?
In case someone goes onto my comp without me knowing (or logging on as an alternate user), I don't want them to see that I got 10 msg's from hot looking friends...
Joking aside, I actually like my destop bland and generic. I don't need help or that extra 1.2 second in going to a particular site or apps.
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June 04, 2011 at 8:42pm
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gothliciouz
June 03, 2011 at 1:31pm
ugly as hell tablet interface, and it will never make it in my desktop pc.
Fecal Face
June 03, 2011 at 9:13am
I don't understand why everybody hates this. There was a video linked in the article (on MS's website), and when they launched Excel 2010 (Or one of the office programs, whatever) it switched to the old UI with the taskbar, so obviously you can still use it.
I think the new UI looks beautiful, and will work wonderfully on tablets / touchscreen PCs. Mouse / keyboard control will work too, as said in the video.
I personally will use the old layout, because I use NVIDIA Surround, causing my screens to be treated as a single display, so having applications always fullscreen in the new UI would be either horrendously stretched, or just a waste of screen real estate.
Basically, if you don't like the new UI, don't use it. At least be glad you have the choice. I love the new UI, but I don't see it working with my setup so I'll use the old one.
kazik
June 03, 2011 at 6:37am
In windows 8, will there be an option to switch between the 'standard' desktop UI and this new UI touch interface?
I prefer mouse & keyboard... and I don't like touch interfaces.
Maxpcblocksreal...
June 03, 2011 at 6:09pm
There's no indication that the UI will be locked in and most likely be optional similar to how Media Center works like an overlay. The post that Doctor X made suguests that the start screen (aka login screen) is indeed locked in. Obviously Doc X and Silencer don't know how to read and recently it's been reported that in order to comply to the tablet UI, MS is enforcing a hardware base guideline which if not followed will in fact default to the traditional desktop so this is even more evidence that this UI will be optional. Considering that the UI is based on using HTML 5 I would assume the UI will be easily customizable also!
Silencer
June 04, 2011 at 9:39am
"There's no indication that the UI will be locked in..."
http://www.tested.com/forums/pc-and-mac/5/first-official-look-at-windows-8-reveals-metro-style-start-screen-video/8610/
"Obviously Doc X and Silencer don't know how to read..."
The new Start Screen can't be turned off (no word on whether you'll be able to disable it as the default view), but OEMs won't be able to disable the Desktop, either (eg. for tablets).
That's what I read.
The rest of your words are equally bullsht. Too busy for that. Good luck with that!
Oh one more thing... I'd like to know where you heard this at, if you wouldn't mind:
"...and most likely be optional similar to how Media Center works like an overlay."
??? ;O) Thank-you!
Oh sht, one more! Another one of these, lol!
"...I would assume the UI will..."
Oh man ROFL. Sorry.
(Oh nice name too there bub.)
TerribleToaster
June 06, 2011 at 4:29am
' "There's no indication that the UI will be locked in..."
http://www.tested.com/forums/pc-and-mac/5/first-official-look-at-windows-8-reveals-metro-style-start-screen-video/8610/'
There is nowhere in that that they say the new start screen is locked in. What they say is "Windows 8 will boot to a new lock screen". Not that the new "lock screen" is a locked option.
For your next little blurb:
"The new Start Screen can't be turned off"
You contradict yourself immediately after by saying:
"(no word on whether you'll be able to disable it as the default view)"
Which leaves me baffled.
"That's what I read.
The rest of your words are equally bullsht. Too busy for that. Good luck with that!"
Red Herrings are pretty fishes.
'Oh one more thing... I'd like to know where you heard this at, if you wouldn't mind:
"...and most likely be optional similar to how Media Center works like an overlay."
??? ;O) Thank-you!'
This was the quoted’s opinion (and thus needs no source) on the fact that "There's no indication that the UI will be locked in" which source is simply a lack of evidence to the contrary (Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat).
'Oh sht, one more! Another one of these, lol!
"...I would assume the UI will..."
Oh man ROFL. Sorry.'
Assumptions being made in a forum of conjecture? HERESY!
"(Oh nice name too there bub.)"
Ad hominem. The backbone of a feeble argument, I would recommend not making any more comments like that.
Silencer
June 03, 2011 at 2:19pm
About 35 posts down, there's a post by DoctorX, which indicates apparently not.
dracx619
June 03, 2011 at 2:19am
i dont know about the readers of this site but it seems every new windows the majority of them come out up in arms about how "fugly" and "terrible" the new version is going to be. on other sites the feedback is much more positive. when win 7 was announced, good god, it was a battle to the death from all the xp folk. now it looks like the story is going to repeat with the win 7 people going crazy and the xp peeps saying "i told you so!"
you people crack me up, that is all...
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