Microsoft has given the world a preview of Windows 8, which seems to be a very big deal for them. It has the feeling of a make or break release. As you can see in the video it takes it’s cues from the Windows Phone 7 user interface. Something I rather like, it’s sleek and modern.
The idea of Windows 8 is that it will run across devices. From desktops, laptops, to touch screen devices. Hence introducing a more touch friendly device. However I wonder if they aren’t bitting off a bit more than they can chew by maintaining a legacy version of Windows. What happens when you try to run PC optimized software on a tablet. How will a desktop version of Excel with it’s small icons feel when used on a touch tablet? Will all software even be compatible? Most tablets are ARN based, I don’t see how an x86 based copy of say Photoshop could run with out some emulation layer. I think a big clue that are going to be compatibility problems is the fact that the tile layers is built on HTML5, which is an easy way to ensure that it runs perfectly on both ARN devices and traditional Intel devices.
These are pretty big questions, and questions I haven’t heard any answer to.
I fear Microsoft might for marketing terms release a product that tries to do it all, and then leave users to discover the frustrating reality.
I guess we will need to see how it plays out.
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infinite-style posted this
