Thursday 2 June 2011

Windows 8 - It has premiered


Hey! So Microsoft premiered their next operating system at D9 yesterday and it seems as if it is more like Windows Phone 7 just placed on top of Windows 7...  So Windows 7 with the Windows Phone 7 tiles. (Some pictures of the Windows 8 interface below)    Although you can use the normal "legacy" view that Windows 7 has so I doubt it will be the end of the world for those who dislike tiles or find them confusing. With Windows 8 being touch friendly it will supposedly work seamlessly on tablets, desktops as well as laptops.

Windows 8 will be able to run on the same hardware as Windows 7 and Windows 7 applications should be able to run fine on Windows 8, although may be a bit interesting to see what happens when you have a Windows 7 application which requires a mouse and you have a touch screen device where your finger isn't as precise.




Microsoft also showed some prototype Windows 8 devices to hardware makers at D9 to provide hardware makers with some guide lines especially since Windows 8 has been optimized for touchscreen devices which will obviously require the hardware makers to change things a bit. Windows 8 will also support both x86 and ARM architecture. Microsoft are expected to reveal more at their developers conference later this year.


Qualcomm is also backing Microsoft, working with Microsoft on Windows 8. Qualcomm's dual core snapdragon is going to be making its first high profile appearance in the upcoming HP TouchPad Tablet due soon and the chip is based on the ARM architecture. Qualcomm have began sample shipments of their new "Krait" processor which is designed to run upto speeds of 2.5Ghz and integrates both 3G and 4G onto a single silicone chip! The chip is designed to power Windows 8 devices.

Sources:  Microsoft shows Windows 8 to hardware makers
Qualcomm backs Windows 8, CEO says tablet hybrids coming
Windows 8 premiere raises more questions than answers


Here we go, some pictures of Windows 8's tile interface (Images from Cnet.com)
  

4 comments:

  1. So there are basically only interface changes? Or is that just all we know about so far?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, there are more than interface changes. We will find out more closer to the time of release.

    I must admit, I am not particularly excited about it at the moment...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Windows is becoming more and more user friendly meaning less technical knowledge needed by the end user to operate a PC.. This isn't always a good thing though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And what about PC users?

    ReplyDelete