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.
It's because of those XP EOL users (Score:5, Interesting)
The "traditional market" is a combination of consumers and bulk business users. The consumer market doesn't use XP much any more (outside of the Asian pirate community). The businesses still stuck on XP are slowly migrating as their old hardware dies, or switching to other devices ... BUT ... (there's always a "but") Windows 8 fulfills Microsoft's goal of moving back to a more frequent release model, thereby enabling them to EOL earlier versions quicker.
They don't want a repeat of XP, where an old OS cannibalizes future sales, ever again. You'll see annual "new versions", same as the iPhone (Balmer steals another Apple trick).
Re:Not in 2012 for me (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll be waiting for Windows 9 after this iOS mimicry flops. This could end up being the worst mistake yet, ME and Vista could both look like minor failures in comparison.
Re:Not in 2012 for me (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the Windows Phone interface on the desktop is quaint. It's an interesting replacement for the start menu... but at the end of the day, that's all it is. I've been working with Win8 as a sort of free windows licence for a VM I run, and as soon as you use a traditional app, it kicks you back to the desktop and acts like Win7. It's one of those things that management is mandating to push... I guess they have an app store?, but at the end of the day all the new interface really is, is a full screen start menu.
It's really, really snappy on Virtual Box though. Goddamn.
more importantly... (Score:5, Interesting)
Do we care?
Re:Phone UI Hell (Score:5, Interesting)
XFCE and LXDE are also still in the sane camp.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
Unless I moved apps to the desktop app, I was unable to have more than 1 onscreen at a time. Had to swap the whole app in and out of view
Perhaps I'll try it out again
Re:Not in 2012 for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, also, MS has caught onto the game, they ship a ceremonial SP1 within a few months of launch now.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Win8 is a non-event (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm still using XP at work. I've heard rumblings that we'll eventually upgrade to 7. Considering the past track record, we MIGHT go from 7 to 9. W8 isn't even a remote possibility.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:4, Interesting)
Windows 9 is going to be everything and nothing at once. They're stripping the kernel to its core and use it as the basis for all their products. Desktop OS, mobile OS, Xbox, set top boxes, etc. It's going to be a great thing for MS because they'll be able to focus on improving a unified core. Basically, they're trying to do with Windows what everyone has been doing with Linux for years, make it something that's easily scalable and customizable across a family of products.
It's going to save MS a ton of money and allow them to focus on keeping their products secure and fast instead of constantly having to patch crappy modules of code that have been carried over for a decade. Microsoft is a lot smarter than people give them credit for, they're just such a huge entity that it takes a while for their plans to build inertia.
Office (Score:5, Interesting)
If this is the Microsoft I'm familiar with, it'll probably be: "Windows isn't done 'till Office won't run." I mean, we are talking about an entity that cannot keep interfaces consistent across divisions of the same company.
I am forced to work with Outlook 2007 under Windows XP. What a nightmare. Copy/Paste doesn't even work consistently within the application itself. Sometimes you'll copy text out of a message and paste into a reply of the same thread, and either the OS or the App will add extra returns and spaces/tabs for no apparent reason. Annoying.
Worse still is Outlook's annoying habit of "are you sure" for EVERYTHING. Find an email with an attachment, open it, close the email. Windows/Outlook asks "Save changes to attachment?" NO. All I did was OPEN it, I didn't change squat! Why the app can't figure this out is a MAJOR FAILURE of Q/A.
So trust me, it'll be Office that breaks under Win8. Or something else critical. Or maybe it'll be by design so that everyone that "upgrades" to Win8 will be forced to buy new copies of Office.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows 8 offers you roaming profiles, single-signon, profiles on a USB-key, dramatically faster boot times and resume times, lower power useage, higher security, better modern device support (USB 3.x, very large drives)...
Metro as a UI offers tablet users a better touch-friendly experience, as well as a "unified' UI look and feel across Microsoft Phones, Tablets, Desktops, and XBox.
Anything you can do in Win7, you will continue to be able to do in Win8.
Win8 will also enable usable Tablet form-factors.
The Metro apps shipped with the current Win8 developer preview are just little "demo" apps, written by MS Interns over a weekend. They do not show the full range of capabilities of Metro apps. Over time, you can imagine all of MS Office, and a ton of games, will be offered as metro style apps. So you'll have more than just "weather" and "stock" apps, if that's what you're concerned about. And Metro apps are sandboxed in a way that makes them very secure.
Windows 8 is offering a lot, but I think most people are getting completely distracted by the Start Screen, an unfinished UI, and a hand-full of simple "demo" apps... it'll be more obvious I think once the beta is released. Then we'll have a better handle on the strengths and weaknesses.
Re:Windows 8 (Score:2, Interesting)
Okay, you're just not very good at following obvious Enlgish sentences then. Because You keep saying things that make no sense.
First, the other poster made a perfectly clear statement of comparison, which you then bizarrely twisted in weird ways that made no sense... and then claimed to be lost.
Then you make a statement that I somehow think what that poster said is true and that that "speaks volumes", when all I did was point out to you the very obvious thing that person was saying (making no judgements otherwise) and questioning how you could misunderstand something so simple and clear.
It's clear you have an agenda to push, and you're twisting everything around to serve that agenda, and aren't really interested in actual communication.
I'll pass on it! (Score:3, Interesting)
With their (MS) history of every other version flavor of Windows having problems, I'll wait for the successor to Win 8. Consider the history...
Win 95 - Win 98
Win NT - Win 2000
Win Me - Win XP
Win Vista - Win 7
Granted, the second one of each pair had problems but not nearly as much problems as the first. Is there a pattern here?