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Microsoft Previews Windows 8 with Cues from iPad and App Store
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I work at a business with many thousand employees around the world. We are still stuck on XP. too much custom software that IT hasn't validated against vista or W7, and too much fear of having to train people on UI differences. I suspect many businesses are similar.
My home PC also runs XP, mostly because I use it only as a server and don't see any value in upgrading and risking breaking anything.
I suspect the corporate case is pretty common.
My only PC (which I use for testing purposes) runs XP too, as did the virtual machine on my previous MBP, so I guess I'm adding to those statistics myself! I looked at the cost of buying a copy of Windows 7 and I just couldn't justify it. I might be tempted to buy a cheap notebook with Windows 8 though.
Someone else (not sure if it was on this thread) recently mentioned the fear Windows users seem to have around system upgrades in regard to things going wrong. I've seen this too. In all my years of using Macs, I always approached an OS upgrade with optimism, and we went through some pretty major changes, especially OS 9 to OS X of course. I kept telling the girl I worked with to upgrade her MBP to Snow Leopard, since she had the Leopard disks, but her dad (a Windows guy) had her worried all sorts of things might go wrong with her machine if she upgrade, and to leave it as is if everything was working fine. Two very different mindsets!
There will be one code base for all editions of the OS, exactly like Windows 7 where you have different editions for different markets. Each edition will have features enabled or disabled. At least that is the way Microsoft has worked so far. I don't think they will change that now.
I had enough of MS after my Vista crashed and corrupted OS on a top of the range laptop, twice. Both the times after the mandatory MS patches. It was a massive waste of time and effort. Went back to XP and started using Mac about 6 months ago. Now will convert all the home PC from XP to MBP. As a long time windows user, upgraded MBP to 8GB and then realized that it has very efficient memory management.
I am also waiting for the next educational promotion so I can use my wife's teacher discount to get a another two MBPs.
One thing is changed, I tried Aperture and loved it. Better for 99% of the times than Photoshop. Very nice (can be improved a bit) and user friendly. At $79, it is silly that any one should be using iPhoto. I played around for a bit and then decided to try Aperture.. will not use photoshop now.
You have to see windows upgrade ....It never works in the real life. Even in rare cases where it works carry a lot of garbage. I am long time windows user for work and two programs (ICC dasher and Chessbase) which refuse to get a Mac version. I don't see any businesses will want to upgrade from XP. It is too much hassle for nothing (no performance improvement at all but issues to deal with)....
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I think it looks pretty slick, especially for touch. Although the gray disappearing scroll bars wasnt lost on me, but I think this is where the similarity to iOS ends. I just wonder how the interface will feel using a mouse.
Several people have commented that it just looks like a layer on top of the os. But isnt this what all modern oses are? Who in the consumer or enterprise worlds uses command line DOS or Unix except for people in IT?
My employer (280,000 employees) still hasnt switched from XP to Windows 7 yet. Our IT heads will spin when they see this. How do you retrain so many people to use a new paradigm in a place where productivity is essential?
Several people have commented that it just looks like a layer on top of the os. But isnt this what all modern oses are? Who in the consumer or enterprise worlds uses command line DOS or Unix except for people in IT?
My employer (280,000 employees) still hasnt switched from XP to Windows 7 yet. Our IT heads will spin when they see this. How do you retrain so many people to use a new paradigm in a place where productivity is essential?
Windows 8, just like 7 and Vista, still give you control over every aspect of the OS. The Aero UI will still be there, so you can still use a traditional UI. The new UI is just for touch applications.
How many times do we need to repeat this?
And why would you use XP? You like being limited to 3GB of RAM?
You should google "Leopard upgrade problems" and "Snow Leopard Upgrade Problems".
You'll find it NEVER makes sense to straight "upgrade" any OS. It's always best to start with a fresh install.
You disable the new UI and switch to the Aero UI? Or even the "classic" UI? If you really want to be stuck in the past, it's not difficult to make Windows 7 (and Windows 8 since it DOES include a traditional UI) look like Windows 98
hahaha.
hahahahahaha
hahahahahahahaha
Oh boy. You call 4x4 grids seamless???? No, it's something else, and it also starts with "s". At best we can call it "simple", but it's true description is a four letter word.
M$ is doing an effort to remain relevant.
I just took an old project and pivoted it to make easy the development of Windows 8 Applications
take a look at http://metrodynamis.com
Is at a very alpha stage right now though
I just took an old project and pivoted it to make easy the development of Windows 8 Applications
take a look at http://metrodynamis.com
Is at a very alpha stage right now though
Then you aren't paying attention. There will be no basic, home, or professional edition they will all be ultimate edition.
I would suggest you read this: http://www.winsupersite.com/article...review-analysis-computex-announcements-136358
I quote:" First of all, there is absolutely not "one Windows," and that's true no matter how pedantic you choose to be. Windows ships in multiple product SKUs, in both 32-bit and 64-bit variants, comes in client, server, and embedded versions, and so on. Unless Microsoft truly intends to just sell something called Windows 8 next year, and not Windows 8 Home Basic, Windows 8 Home Premium, Windows 8 Professional, Windows 8 Ultimate, Windows 8 Enterprise, and so on, this claim is just silly. And then of course, there is ARM too. It may look and work like Windows on x86/x64, but come on. It is a different version of Windows too."
People try to read to much into all that.
There will only be 3 version you can buy off the shelf. Home Premium, Pro and Ultimate.
Enterprise, Basic and AR/embeded would all be special case ones so should not be lumped in and counted as other versions.
It drives me nuts that people do try to count them but fail to under stand Enterprise is bussiness only and designed to handle things like network install, hard drive cloning and so on. Basic is limited only to a small list of devices and only come from OEM. Higher version of Windows would not be offered for those. A lot of things are removed from it.
Interesting article. Especially this bit:
So I bet you'll be able to force "desktop mode" on any device/resolution if you don't want the new UI with a simple registry hack.
By that same logic there are several different versions of OS X.
Which versions?
I am sure that Microsoft will offer many versions, but we can't know now how licensing will look like. It is too early too tell.
If Windows 8 had this start menu more deeply integrated, then I would say that Microsoft has something good going on. Unfortunately this isn't the case. What you see is just a start menu replacement, nothing else. Developers will be able to develop HTML5 applications but the big question is what happens to native code...
A terminal is just an application on top of the OS too. You have the OS and then you have different way of interfacing with it. Sometimes it makes sense to use a GUI optimized for a mouse, sometimes to use one optimized for a keyboard, and now you can use an additional GUI, optimized for touch, in win 8.
Apple won't allow that for obvious reasons and a lot of people even applaud that in this thread. I guess it would be heresy to imagine an OS X GUI iPad used as a laptop with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse link. Of course if Apple ever comes around the general opinion would be that it was genius and that Microsoft totally copied it
It's more than just that because you never have to leave the Start Menu environment if you don't want to.
You can run all your apps and consume all your content directly from the new UI, without ever having to go into desktop mode unless you need to.
And over time, that will change too. We've already seen screenshots of Office 15, and it looks like it's more suited to the new UI than traditional desktop (linked one or two pages back, search for Moorea).
Intel, PPC, Server, Unlimited client server
Why don't you do the tiniest bit of research into what Microsoft is doing instaed of just blurting fanboy talking points? Native code is still supported. High level general processor languages with just in time compilers are the future. That way developers no longer have to code for one architecture and can be processor type agnostic, this is where Windows is headed and where OS X should be headed. Instead Apple is sitting on there hands with this weak Lion update; Launch Pad, full screen apps, a new view in Mail.app? Apple seriously considers these major new features of Lion?
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PPC and Intel were not separate. Apple has only two products: Client and Server. Microsoft offers many different editions with different features enabled. This is completely different than what you are talking about.
Who said that native code won't be supported? Learn to read. I said noone knows if native code will be supported on this new environment. The classic GUI has of course native code support.
About being a fanboy or not, you are simple mistaken. I am a Microsoft Specialist and I implement Exchange Server solutions for a living. I have worked for Microsoft and I am very near them even now. I like most of their products but I have my doubts about what they are doing about Windows 8. I am afraid that they are fragmenting applications in a way that will make the users go away. This is a big bet for Microsoft...