Will Windows 8 Be Ready For Release In 2012? 504
MrSeb writes with an excerpt from an Extreme Tech article on the Windows 8 release timeline: "...A Microsoft vice president announced that the Windows 8 beta would begin in late February 2012. The beta will be feature-complete and will allow developers to begin listing their apps in the Store. The timing of the beta is curious, and ultimately quite telling. ... The first public build of Windows 8 ... emerged in mid-September 2011; by the time the beta rolls around, it will have been ruminating for more than five months. If we follow the timeline forward — it took 10 months for Windows 7 to go from beta to public release — then it's possible that Windows 8 might arrive just in time for Black Friday 2012, or perhaps not in 2012 at all. Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android? Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?"
In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
The idea is that most people might not even end up needing to use the desktop.
Win8 is a non-event (Score:5, Informative)
Three things:
1. Everyone knows that every other release of Windows is good (Win 3.1, 98, XP, 7) and every other one sucks (Win 3.0, 95, ME, Vista.) No enterprise is going to jump on this release.
2. Enterprises are in various states of completing their transition to Win 7. Very few enterprises are going to begin another rip and replace cycle next year, so no one is going to jump on this release.
3. Everything in the press has stated how Microsoft has taken a different direction for this user interface (but lately admitting the old one is still there.) No enterprise is going to jump on this release.
With regards to tablets and phones.. I really don't care what OS mine runs other than I want to to work exactly the way I want it to work. I doubt Win8 will.
Re:Not in 2012 for me (Score:5, Informative)
Actually yes, since server 2008 they've moved to a CLI-before-GUI system, where all tasks can be performed from the CLI and the GUI only handles a subset of them, as in Linux. This is good since everything now becomes scriptable, the GUI becomes optional, and you don't need a full virtual desktop to get things done remotely.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:4, Informative)
You aren't getting it.
Windows 8 is a super-set of Windows 7, with some really amazing advances on the desktop side (from a vastly improved Task Manager to impoved large disk management, to faster boot times, faster/better file copies, etc).
Metro apps are a bonus. Everything that ran on Win7 will run on Win8.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
In Windows, the desktop is actually an app in and of itself. When explorer.exe is first run, it loads the desktop (all icons that go on it) and the taskbar. If you never run Explorer, you'll never get the desktop. It's the same thing here; a person doesn't actually have to run Explorer, and if they don't, then the desktop will never load. The first UI the user will see will be the Metro UI, not Explorer.
Now, the second a person runs a traditional windowed application, the desktop will load as well for UI consistency, and all applications (graphically) will be contained within that layer. However, not every windowed application has to be paired with the desktop. If you run the task manager, for instance, it will float above everything else even if you switch back to the Metro UI or use a Metro application.
Re:Not in 2012 for me (Score:5, Informative)
Even better, the GUIs for things like Exchange 2010 allow you to view the CLI commands being used for any of the changes you make, so that you can easily script them, rather than having to try and work out which particular command and property name that checkbox needs.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:4, Informative)
In the metro interface you can have windows side by side: http://youtu.be/p92QfWOw88I?t=2m04s [youtu.be]
Now, this apparently only works for higher resolution monitors (although a simple registry hack [mywindowsclub.com] removes this restriction), so maybe that was why you couldn't do it.
However, this is beside the point that any user can go on the desktop and run any number of apps side by side (PDF, browser, VS, VLC, or otherwise).
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
There are regular Windows desktop apps (just like now, including every Windows app out tehre).
And there are new "Metro" apps, which are targeted at touch-tablet devices... but can run on desktop systems.
Metro apps can run one or two on a screen at once. They're full screen (like iPad apps), but you can "dock" two of them side-by-side as well. They're designed for tablets though. You CAN run them on a desktop, and I'm sure there will ultimately be many "Metro" apps people will want to run on Desktops... ... but most desktop people will stay in desktop. I knwo they've called it an "App", but that's just a silly way to think of it. You sit at the desktop just like you do now in Win7. Instead of the small Start Menu, you have a big Start Screen. Hit escape and you're back on the desktop just like with the Start Menu. You still have the task bar for windows apps, and you can flip full-screen metro apps in if you like and cycle through them (or switch to them with Task Manager).
Re:It's because of those XP EOL users (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
Everything you wanted to know about Windows 8 file copy enhancements:
Improving our file management basics: copy, move, rename, and delete: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/23/improving-our-file-management-basics-copy-move-rename-and-delete.aspx [msdn.com]
Designing the Windows 8 file name collision experience: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/26/designing-the-windows-8-file-name-collision-experience.aspx [msdn.com]
Building robust USB 3.0 support: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/22/building-robust-usb-3-0-support.aspx [msdn.com]
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
The program has existed since Vista atleast (maybe earlier)
features such as queuing copies, not running 2 simultaneous operations from the same disk if one is maxing out the read speed, an adjustable buffer, failing from a copy gracefully, pause and resume function, identifying if the source and destination are the same or different device,etc
were never in Windows
Re:Windows 8 (Score:3, Informative)
You get lost easily.
He's simply showing that these same things were said about Office 2007, and turned out not to be true, so all these same hysterical rantings of doom and gloom are likely to not be true about Windows 8 as well (using history as a guide).
Was that really that difficult to follow??
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Windows 8 (Score:3, Informative)
Well, I'm glad you're so open minded about it.
I'll agree that it's jarring right now. But if you actually take the time to get used to it, it's not that bad. But there are still some significant issues I have with it, that I hope get addressed in the Beta (or before GA at any rate).
I think it says a lot that you wasted the time to configure your XP start menu to look like 95's. That's just... I dunno. Weird.
I used to spend a lot of time micro-managing the start menu in XP. It was a pain, but I could get it the way I wanted. In Win7 I was initially put of that you couldn't do this any more... but after using it, I realized I didn't need to any more.
The Start Screen is much like that. It's different. I have some muscle-memory that is having difficulty adjusting to a few things. I've had to "re-think" a few of the ways I used to do things, but with a few exeptions, most things are better now.