Today, at the D9 Conference, Microsoft demonstrated the next version of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is designed to scale from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.
Microsoft also seems to have run a “find and replace” on their marketing materials, replacing “programs” with “apps” everywhere. Wonder why.
Microsoft demoed a few aspects of the new “Windows 8” interface, including:
• Launching of programs apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of programs apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing up-to-date information from your programs apps.
• Switching between running programs apps.
• Capability to snap and resize a program an app to the side of the screen.
• Web-connected and Web-powered programs apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript.
• Touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.
The video below introduces a few of the basic elements of the new user interface:
Microsoft is working to get “Windows 8” ready for early testing. No release date has been disclosed.
MacDailyNews Take: Taking into account that demos are, of course, designed to make products look good no matter what, our initial impression is that Microsoft, in trying to cram everything into Windows 8 in an attempt to be all things to all devices, will end up with an OS that’s a jack of all trades and a master of none (which, after all, ought to be Microsoft’s company motto).
By the time this hybrid spawn of Windows Phone ’07 + Windows 7ista actually ships, one can only dream where Apple’s iOS and Mac OS X will be! For Microsoft, it’ll be more like a nightmare. Perhaps Microsoft will someday put some scare into Google’s Android/Chrome OS, but only time – and a lot of it when measured in tech time – will tell. We simply do not see the world clamoring for the UI of an iPod also-ran now ported to an iPhone wannabe that nobody’s buying to be blown up onto a PC display.
From what we’ve seen so far, Windows 8 strikes us as an unsavory combination of Windows Weight plus Windows Wait.
Not to mention that probably no one on earth knows how much or what kinds of residual legacy spaghetti code roils underneath it all (shudder). Is Microsoft giving up on backwards compatibility? If so, people might as well get the Mac they always wanted. If not, then Microsoft’s unwilling to do what it takes to really attempt to keep up with the likes of Apple or even Apple’s followers. No matter what, if Microsoft’s going to ask Windows sufferers to “learn a whole new computer” (and that’s exactly how they’ll look at it, regardless of how Microsoft pitches it), millions will simply say, “Time to get a Mac to match my iPod, iPhone, and iPad!”
As if they needed it: More good news for Apple.
All seems rather interesting until about 3:07 when Excel appears along with a Windows task bar, start button, etc. So what we have here is yet another layer running on top of Windows – it was there all along, they just hid it!
Windows 2L8
Hey Steve, during your WWDC Keynote of the new Mac OS Lion and iOS can you start calling the icons, “small tiles”, just to piss off Ballmer and crew! Thanks. Oh, and rename (just for the Keynote) Lion to Windows Lion X(superscript)7!! Piss ’em off some more! Thanks!
Enough consistency from version to version is needed to let users feel comfortable with upgrades. Win8 = maybe.
Simplicity rules & somehow MS has not given that in the past.
Classic Microsoft product…looks about as useful as the “Ronco Pocket Fisherman” …I guess they’ll continue to piss away there money on losers until the cash cows are dried up.
Wow! I’m a PC and Windows 8 was Apple’s idea. Unfortunately, MS will f this up and it’ll be just like Windows Me and Vista.
How fast do you want to get lost and confused today? Windows 8!
Comes with a free Flowbee. Cut your down time and your dogs hair!.
The wall looks more organized than Windows 8. It will take 5-8 years for the code to work correctly. Like Windows 2000 and other Windows, updates will be 500 fixes at a time. It will start out being 10 gigs in size and balloon to 20+ gigs. All new Microsoft applications will be required.
I’ve heard audio from a 4th grade production that sounds better than the audio in the video.
The speaker sounded as enthusiastic about Windows 8 as I do, just a bit more than a wet towel.
Windows 8 will be a boom for Apple, but we will have to wait until 2013 before it is released. Also, a new CEO for Microsoft by then.
What a laugh as usual.
No kidding …..
We are so happy to show you what we have been working on for the year and what we are going to do over the next year ….. Are you kidding me – Softie is saying 2012 or 2013 before release, OK by then there will be another 100 million or more iPads in the wild not to mention iPhones …..
In German the phrase “V G8s” means “hello.”
I don’t know how that contributes to this thread but I thought I drop it in here at the end.
That is the biggest steaming pile of crap I’ve ever seen!!
It’s fine for touch tablets but not a computer with a keyboard and mouse. This is finally the death of windows
Wow… Look at the Mac users going crazy over an OS that is not even out yet. So let me get this straight. How many people switched to Mac after the Windows Vista issue??? Oh wait it was just Mac users who tried out windows and went back to Macs. As for the everyday person they stayed either with Win XP or switched to Windows 7. Exactly what is the market share of PCs to MACs??? You Mac heads need to stop overly bashing windows and take into account what is good as well as what is bad. No OS is perfect even OS X. And no aim not a WIN head as I have a MacBook Pro As well as iPhone and IPad 2. So I can appreciate Apple’s products but I also like I can afford the IPhone and a Pc but can’t say the same if I was to buy a iPhone and a Mac at the same time. When Apple lowers their price I will go ahead and buy what I have always wanted… A Mac desktop. And windows 8 looks okay and the UI is not complex unless you are calling most of the population stupid as these interface is overly easy.
and your point is….?
I’ve been a Mac user since 1985–I thought this was the most impressive Windows interface ever. I admire Microsoft for coming up with something that isn’t a direct copy of the current Mac OS. It looks good, might be appealing but as so many others have pointed out, it’s not intuitive. I cannot conceive of the nightmare of trying to convert an office of non-computer personnel over to Windows 8.
Lousy video, is this the best Softie can do ….
Keyboard, gotta reach into the middle, we have a very ergonomic sty,e keyboard that feels very natural ….. Yet next opportunity has to show-off they use the normal style keyboard, huh ?????
Creative room ….. Hum, looked more like a bunch of post it notes hung on a wall, whatever …..
And this system, brothers and sisters does not look “geeky” so Softie will loose some of that crowd back to Windoze 7 or XP, which is the world my brother is stuck in ……
Not to mention the monitor cord hanging down the wall over their post it notes ……
Can’t even imagine Apple setting up a room like that, talk about hacked together ……
What a garbarge article, lol.
I realise it’s called “mac”dailynews, but seriously, you couldn’t be more biased if you tried.
It’s pretty amazing how little you understand of msft’s business. Apple doesn’t need to care about legacy, because nobody has a serious invested interest in the platform. You can’t go and tell 95% of the business world that none of their custom developped programs handling critical business processes won’t work any longer, you retard.
I will be laughing 3 years from now, when apple realises that windows 8 is like the 90’s and windows 95 all over again.
this is the most biased review i’ve ever read and im disgusted by the author and the mindless group of mac users who are acting like teenage fan girls. Windows 7 is actually very easy to use for any decent human being with some form of intelligence. And yes, Macs are too…actually, you know what? i’m not even going to bother saying what windows is still a good os. because you morons will still insist that apple is better. For the price you idiots pay for macs, pc users get twice the better computer. Ipod is going to the shits, andriod tablets are taking over (yes, the new android tablet kicks ipad in the ass so hard it’s hurts to just watch), mac will be useless once windows 8 is out because the exclusive programs you fans desperately hold on to will be compatible with windows. So for this author who wrote this brainless article, if windows 8 become some ‘wannabe’ mac, it’s more likely people will change over to windows because it’s fucking more cheaper and useful than your overpriced shits. That is all.
“more cheaper”? 😐
Ummmm….. has anyone else thought that HTML5+JavaScript app development, besides the obvious primitivity, is …… wait for it ……. PLATFORM INDEPENDENT? Mind you, there might be proprietary APIs, but it seems these could be ported over to Linux and OS X.
Full Disclosure: I have 2 MacBook Pros, an iPad, an iPod, an iPhone, and an Apple TV. I’m an iOS developer. I have emotional rancor toward Microsoft. Their CEO is so bad, I wonder if he might be a mole sent from a competitor to destroy MSFT.
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HOWEVER…. Windows 8 MIGHT ROCK!!!! Let me explain.
Windows 8 looks like it will finally open up some REAL competition not just in the tablet market, but compete directly with iOS as a **mobile operating system**. That’s great news for Apple fans. It will drive innovation for iPad and iOS and prevent Apple from getting fat, lazy, and resting on laurels.
Fanboys have already pointed out every visible shortcoming of Win8 above, so let’s look at some heavy hitting pros:
1. IT HAS A FILE SYSTEM. You can access your files!!! Your tablet hasn’t been deliberately handicapped to be less than it can be.
2. Flash (which is crappy and I salute Steve Jobs for slowly killing it). Flash is nevertheless viewable on Win8 tablets, giving the full web.
3. IE 10. The browser is THE bread and butter app on a tablet. IE 10 actually looks better, cleaner, and easier than Safari on iPad+iOS 5. Unbelievable. OK, I can’t believe it. Wow. Really? Apple has long neglected mobile Safari, for some reason. iOS 5 finally started to remedy it, but IE 10 is ahead.
4. APPS. Windows apps will run on Win8 tablets!! iOS has more apps than Android? Smashing. Win8 having every windows app out there? Explosive.
5. You can actually run full-blown Word and Excel on a little portable tablet! In the business world, that alone could be an iPad killer. I say COULD BE because it’s very possible the UI and usability of these apps will be awful on a tablet. Never underestimate MSFT’s ability to fumble an opportunity. Nevertheless, full blown Word/Excel vs. iOS diluted versions of Pages and Numbers.
All in all, I’m not saying Win8 tablets will be better than iPad. I’m just saying that the competition is on. Believe me, competition is GOOD for not just for consumers, but developers as well.