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
First Thoughts
With under a day to see, play with, and write about the Windows 8 pre-beta it’s hard to fully digest what we’ve seen and to come up with a meaningful opinion. With Microsoft it’s a safe bet that there’s more to be seen when they’re still this far away from shipping the final product.
For a tablet-focused event I don’t think you will find much disagreement that Microsoft has hit the mark with Metro. Metro feels like it belongs when used with a tablet – it’s smooth, it’s easy to use, it’s gesture-driven, and it’s finger-friendly. Virtually everything Windows Phone 7 did well as a touch screen OS has been ported over to Metro and it shows.
The converse of that is that Metro feels awkward and out of place when used with a mouse and keyboard as a laptop/desktop. It fails to take advantage of the precision of the mouse or the fact that not everything needs to be in size 28 font when sitting down to use a computer. At this moment it feels like trying to use a tablet with a mouse and keyboard, which isn’t far off from what it really is in the first place.
The underpinnings look interesting, but there’s still a great deal left to see such as DirectX 11.1 and WDDM 1.2. I believe that in the long run the class driver additions will help further simplify using Windows, and integrating Microsoft Security Essentials into the OS is a long overdue change. At the same time if nothing else Metro will go even farther to improve security thanks to the fine grained permissions system.
Ultimately this is just the beginning, in fact it’s the beginning of a beginning. Windows 8 is still at least a year off – Microsoft isn’t even close to committing to a date – and the pre-beta is pre-beta in every sense of the word. The real fight starts today when Microsoft pitches it to developers. Because so much rides on Metro, Microsoft needs to convince developers to start writing Metro applications, otherwise most of the work Microsoft has put into Windows 8 will languish. Microsoft looks to have the tools their developers need, but will it be enough? Perhaps this is what BUILD is meant to find out.
Stay tuned as we’ll have more from BUILD this week, including coverage of today’s opening keynote.
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A5 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
If you think the only difference between Win95 and Win7 is the UI and "convenience functionality" (and I love how make this sound like a bad thing), then you are sorely mistaken.Exodite - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
For the end user there's no discernible differences aside from those noted.Sure, we've gotten higher versions of APIs such as DirectX or whatever but in the end that matters very little.
UMADBRO - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Have fun with that. Let us all know what happens when you try and even get that outdated, abandoned POS online, much less being able to do anything even remotely useful, other then playing old, shitty games.Exodite - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
I used my '92 Amiga as my primary computer until '04, at which point I built my first Wintel machine - mainly due to gaming.The Amiga still works, were connected to the Internet with a 10Mbit PCMCIA Ethernet adapter, had an excellent browser for the time, and still offers a better desktop experience than any version of Windows.
I realize most people familiar with the platform only ever used A500's with Kickstart 1.2 or 1.3 and never actually saw the OS due to using it as gaming console. That's unfortunate, as AmigaOS 3.x remains unmatched in performance, simplicity, power and convenience when put up against any modern desktop OS.
UMADBRO - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
That must have been interesting. Ill admit, I also use older stuff for specific things, like my old P4 box running Win98SE for DOS and older Windows games. But I also realize that its usefulness is limited, at best. Eventually we all need to move on. Anyway, sorry for the hostility. The overall tone in these messages when I was reading last night just annoyed me to no end. The majority of people have made up their mind before even trying things out. I cant stand close minded people like that.Exodite - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
No offense taken, I do see your point.For me personally I suppose the disappointment is two-fold;
The distinct lack of technical innovation, which I consider current iterations of Windows to be in desperate need of, and the hodge-podge UI design.
The latter will hopefully improve until release at least.
I'm personally not a fan of metro in any way, though for WP7 devices I have no problem acknowledging that it's a very functional design with it's own distinctive style.
Unfortunately I can't see an upside to its introduction on the desktop. Someone likened it to a 'consoleization' of the desktop and I can only think about how how apt that statement is.
Still, final judgment must be reserved for the release version.
Booster - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Looks like another 9 years on Windows 7 to me. There's no way I'm ever installing this crap.Booster - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
I mean, how can you even multitask on this ridiculous garbage? I normally have like 10 browser windows open, 4-5 word and excel docs, plus a handful of Explorer windows. And I need to switch between all this really fast, copy and paste and so on. What am I supposed to do with this?!dagamer34 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Stick to the normal desktop?ph0tek - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
LOL. Exactly. Some of these people commenting are so thick i's truly amazing.