Microsoft BUILD: Windows 8, A Pre-Beta Preview
by Brian Klug & Ryan Smith on September 13, 2011 12:05 PM EST- Posted in
- BUILD
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 8
- Trade Shows
We’re here in Anaheim, California at Microsoft’s BUILD conference. As has become tradition (or at least as much as possible), Microsoft has been holding major developer conferences for their new OSes roughly a year ahead of launch. In 2008 developers and the press got their first in-depth look at Windows 7 at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), and here in 2011 BUILD is doing much the same for Windows 8.
As it stands Windows 8 is still in its infancy. The build in Microsoft’s demos is 1802, a pre-beta and not feature complete version of the OS. Microsoft needs to balance the need to show off Windows 8 to developers with a need to keep it under wraps until it’s done as to not spook end-users. The result of that is the situation at BUILD, where Microsoft is focusing on finished features while unfinished features are either not in the OS or are going unmentioned. For comparison, at PDC 2008 the Windows 7 interface was not done yet, and Microsoft was using the Windows Vista interface in its place.
Today the show kicks off in earnest with a keynote that begins at the same time as this article went live, followed by some mega-sessions for developers covering the biggest aspects of Windows 8. Yesterday was a pre-show day for press, with Microsoft spending most of the day running the press through a similar series of presentations, focused more on the end-user than developers.
At the conclusion of the press sessions we managed to get some hands on time with a tablet PC development platform running the same build of Windows 8. We haven’t had the chance to give the platform a full working over – not that it would be prudent in its pre-beta state – but we did want to give you a rundown of what Microsoft had to share with us and what we’ve seen so far. Microsoft’s tagline for BUILD is that “Windows 8 changes everything” and while Win8 is not a massive reworking of the Windows kernel, it is a major overhaul of nearly everything else. Certainly based on the pre-beta build on display, you will be using Windows 8 significantly differently from Windows 7.
The big thing with Windows 8 is Metro, which we’ll go more in-depth with in a bit. Microsoft classifies Metro as a style, but in reality Metro is a new version of Windows from the API on up. Metro is the Windows Shell, Metro is an application design paradigm, Metro is a user paradigm, and Metro is the future of Windows application programming. Metro is everywhere – and for ARM it is everything - and it will make (or break) Windows 8.
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Saad_Salman - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
I'm amazed how much MS is bragging about the so called 'windows tablet interface' with html5 (css & js) apps like it's never been done before. Dashboard? Remember something? Apple did it with Webkit application framework, with which, developers have been creating apps since OSX Tiger. Tiles are almost identical to dashboard with different ui.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashboard_(software)
Bees - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
How do we think it is going to handle multiple monitors? Will only one get the Metro treatment while the rest show the traditional desktop?tayb - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Metro is for portable devices. Slates, Tablets, etc. This will not be on your gaming rig.The freaking demo was done on a 11.1" tablet for crying out loud.
Not only that but if you don't like Metro no one, NO ONE, will force you to use it. And who in their right mind would use it on their desktop??? Haven't you seen the other screen shots of Windows 8? It's still a desktop OS. Metro is essentially an "add on" for mobile.
Rand - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
It's helpful to read the article, and to read the tons of stuff MS has put up and all the live blogs from BUILD.You HAVE to use Metro, you have no choice. Microsoft WILL force you to use it, it is Windows. On all platforms you have Metro and you will be using it.
Metro is not as addon, it is the core of Windows.
Any time you launch an application or configure system settings, or bootup or anything of the like you will be using Metro. It cannot be disabled. There are no alternatives.
This will be on your gaming system, and your servers, and everything else. MS has made this abundantly clear. It's been stated in a dozen articles.
You cannot disable Metro.
rs2 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
"Microsoft WILL force you to use it, it is Windows."You seem to have confused Microsoft with Apple, and Windows with OSX. If anything, Microsoft has a fairly good track record of allow users to enable "Classic" features if they prefer them.
Rand - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
No confusion, I just read what MS has said. Unless their lying, you cannot enable a classic experience.fausto412 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
is it really time for a new windows?Microsoft has lost its mind.
Malih - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
But I know I'll be buying a Windows 8 tablet PC,or maybe if they can implement something like Kinect so you can operate the touch UI with non-touchscreen monitor, and do it from reasonable distance with good accuracy.
trip1ex - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
MS is just creating the same tablets as they did before but with a tablet gui. And I think that is a mistake just as it was before.The end result is a big tablet with terrible battery life and heat issues at a high price. No one wants that as a tablet.
And no one wants the tablet form factor to use traditional desktop apps because then you might as well stick with the laptop.
And Win8 on ARM? Not seeing how they can pull that off and have decent battery life and performance still. I will believe it when I see it.
The beauty of the tablets i have used is the lightweight. The long battery life. The snappy performance for reading, email, video, and light weight tasks. The fact it gets out of the way. It is not just the form factor.
Win8 on ARM will be a mirage because Win8 will not truly work well on ARM
UMADBRO - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Once again, because you seem to have super powers and already know something about an unfinished product on unfinished hardware, you seem to be able to peer into the future and know everything there is to know about this. Bravo. Thank you for telling the masses your wonderful insight, instead of keeping it to yourself!