Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Microsoft Software Windows Technology

Microsoft Reveals More Windows 8 Details 538

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the eighth-try-is-a-charm dept.
Barence writes "Microsoft has released the first full details of Windows 8, with an all-or-nothing approach to touchscreen technology. All versions of Windows 8 — whether used on a touchscreen device or not — will use the operating system's new Metro interface, which was first developed for Windows Phone 7 devices. The advent of Windows 8 sees Microsoft introduce a new style of application, dubbed Metro Style apps, and its own app store. The company also claims to have boosted Windows 8 performance with fast boot/shutdown times, a new Task Manager and the option to refresh a PC with a clean install of the OS with apps and settings left intact."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Microsoft Reveals More Windows 8 Details More

Microsoft Reveals More Windows 8 Details

Comments Filter:

  • Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 0123456 (636235) on Tuesday September 13 2011, @02:52PM (#37390296)

    Metro is an alternative to the desktop interface, it doesn't replace it.

    When the OS boots up into a crappy phone interface which only gives you the option to switch to the desktop interface, and when the desktop start menu apparently switches you back to the crappy phone interface, that's a pretty damn good sign that Microsoft are abandoning the desktop.

  • Re:I felt a great disturbance in the Force... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JRowe47 (2459214) on Tuesday September 13 2011, @04:08PM (#37391182)
    When they're demoing the mobile interface, but then reveal that you can switch to a real desktop mode, they've gone a step farther than any other mobile OS has so far. I can't tell you how sick I am of Android not having easy task management or windowing. Assuming they maintain their API (which they will) and release an appropriate toolchain (which they will, with free tools too) then recompiling windows programs to target mobile devices will now be possible. Whereas in iOS or Android, almost everything has to be built from scratch, or from Java, or shoehorned in using kludgy hacks or proprietary toolchains. With more than 80% of all computer users everywhere familiar with Windows, having the interface available on devices will give M$ a huge advantage. They're not abandoning the desktop. It's reaffirming the desktop's place as a fundamentally sound method of interfacing with a flat screen. GUI comes down to ease of use, and the desktop paradigm minimizes the number of steps required to switch between tasks and views, or utilizing multiple app views at the same time. Windows Phone 7 was a holdover while they were fixing the codebase for win8 to deploy on all targets. Too bad Android had to be a hackish copy of iOS, instead of being Linux on a phone, with dual phone/desktop interface. They'd have beat M$ to the finish line, but now we're seeing the beginning of a new era of Windows dominance.

Thousands of days of civilians ... have produced a ... feeling for the aesthetic modules --