Microsoft has been more quiet than usual about their currently-in-development operating system, Windows 8. Today that has changed! While there still is much left unknown, they’ve unveiled a small bit of information that shows off its touch-screen capabilities.
The Windows 8 touch interface sports a Metro UI that is very similar to what you see in the Windows Phone 7, and an app market similar to the one offered by Apple. But the really cool thing about Windows 8 is it appears to be two operating systems in one. For mobile touch-screen devices you have the Metro UI touch interface, but for desktops and laptops you can switch over to the more traditional interface. It’s important to note that the whole OS is being built from the ground up based on touch-interface, and will possibly see some integration with the Xbox Kinect.
Multi-tasking appears to work seamlessly as well. You can switch between videos and apps without the video even stopping, or you can split screen your apps like you would on a desktop computer. For typing there is a built-in software keyboard that also sports some amazing features, such as splitting being entirely splittable and resizable for larger screens.
Check out the official preview from Microsoft video below:
There is still a long road of development left ahead for the development team at Microsoft, but the general message is out there to Google and Apple: “Hey, we’re Microsoft and our mobile operating is enough to make you nervous.”
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shockersh
Wow… That does look a lot more like a phone OS than a desktop OS. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think for the home consumer, great. But honestly this is new and it’s going to take a while to wrap my head around it. I guess thinking about it, my iPhone works just great and I don’t need all that crap called windows to make it work so I guess if you can make my home computer just as easy to use as my iPhone, great. I’ll probably like windows 8 then.
In the long-term, change is usually good so I’ll probably embrace it longterm. What kind of release dates do we have?
Gladkikh
(sorry… I had to rsviee the second comment. too many mistakes in it for anyone trying to follow my train of thought. here is a better version. pls delete the other one. thanks.)Oh, and I also want to touch on who is really to blame for Vista sucking the big one on laptops. If you guessed laptop manufacturers, you deserve a prize. When Microsoft launched Vista, they allowed manufacturers of new machines (PCs and laptops) to give customers a choice till XP was originally set to be shelved forever. The branders who built their own PCs gave customers the choice while laptop manufacturers did not. They loaded Vista on every level they sold starting at the very bottom where the components were cheap and not meant to translate into any actual CPU muscle support. This meant that your laptop was now running a much bigger operating system that it could ever handle. To make matters worse, laptop manufacturers only put in the bare minimum of RAM needed to run Vista adequately let alone efficiently. No wonder you could have chiselled that email in stone faster! Give Vista the CPU and RAM it needs, and you will never find reason to hate the way it performs.The inherent problem with Vista on laptops is that it’s not really O/S suited to run at bare minimum, and yet every day we see entry level machines running it. It’s crazy. It’s like putting a Ferrari engine inside a Smart Car. C’mon! Be sensible. And all of the laptop manufacturers did it to cut costs – and on a lot of models that weren’t expandable enough to accommodate any service pack growth as they came down from Microsoft. Again, not a Microsoft problem. Vista works. It works beautifully on PCs with hardware expansion to grow with the service packs. Vista works but not very well on any of the entry to mid level laptops with even the maximum RAM installed. But, all of this is a moot point since all machines after November or so will come loaded with Windows 7… with, again, the bare minimum of RAM (I’m sure).