Ok - Hold your horses here...
Very interesting.
If 2011 is year of the copycat with the flood of sub-standard Android tablets, it could well be that 2012 is the year of real competition to iOS.
If implemented correctly, Apple's "app-dominance" will really be challenged by this. Apple's trump card with iOS has always been its app-store and its ecosystem.
If a theoretical Windows 8 device could run the millions of windows apps, this really would blow Apple's 350k-app iOS app store out of the water. And if we are talking ecosystems, having seemless integration (and full networking capability) with 85% of all computing devices means you are starting from a pretty strong position.
As others have said - it definately looks like the touch-based OS is really just a shell running over the top of Windows 7, however this is not necessarily a bad thing. It might well end up giving users the best of both worlds. Intuitive and fun touch-based apps for home, and the ability to run real business applications, with real networking, real multitasking and real file systems when required.
This actually really highlights the problem that Apple has with its split operating systems (iOS and OSX). Will make the upcoming iOS5/Lion launch very interesting.
Don't forget - competition is a good thing.
While I see your point regarding the whole ecosystem thing, your theoretical device would have to be running an x86 processor to be able to runs all of those applications. In other words the whole hardware piece would also have to be comparable to iOS hardware in performance, including battery life. Maybe by the time Windows 8 is ready for launch, Intel will have their power consumption down to the level where a x86 10 inch tablet can have the performance of an ARM tablet with the same battery life. But I doubt it.
But it is rumoured that MS is looking to run versions of W8 on ARM architecture - thus creating a bit of fragmentation requiring applications to be designed in both processing environments, right?
I'm not a programmer, but from what I've read that would not be a fun process, and it would go against MS policy of backwards compatibility going all the way back to DOS.
HOWEVER, I would be thoroughly impressed with MS if it did take this leap and actually dare to forge ahead as Apple continuously does with their products. What's the problem with supporting things for a max of 3-4 years? File formats are one thing, but programs and legacy operating systems themselves? Come on, people, that just destroys and puts a ball and chain on innovation, and that is what finally made me throw in the towel with MS in the first place!
What's with all of you tech savvy forum users going all shy on user interface changes? Trackpads and mice are 40 year old technologies! Touch already is more efficient when implemented correctly, and has the potential to exponentially improve the productivity of interacting with a computer compared to a mouse or trackpad in the future.
The future is here - get used to it!
Am I the only one here who truly has replaced their home personal computing network from a server-desktop-laptop to an iPad and a Mac mini as a server? The only thing I can't do is upload files to websites. Everything else a personal home user could ever want to do is just as easily done now with this setup - whether it be streaming music/video all over the household to writing up resumes, family budgets, expense reports, printing, file sharing, blah blah blah, you name it! It may be done slightly differently, but it is just as easy if not easier than it was with a traditional PC/Mac setup of just a couple of years ago.
And it is only going to improve! That's the beauty of it!
I am fully aware that the computer professionals out there still need the powerful creating tools that currently only traditional machines can provide - but the UI's of those systems are inevitably going to merge with these newer devices as they become more mainstream, and very soon one will not be able distinguish the performance and capability difference at all and due to demand these creation tools will become available on the new devices.
In 5 years this will be a whole different landscape! Hardly recognisable if you keep your eyes shut for too long...out with the old and in with the new!!!
