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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Belard - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Hopefully Metro Apps will be smart enough to work in a windowed environment... otherwise, they might as well drop the "Windows" name. If thats the case - then it becomes a non issue.For tablet and phone devices, a full screen is needed because of the smaller sub 11" screens. Fine.
Remember, Win8 has a normal desktop. Its always there. And WebOS showed good ways of multi-tasking on a tablet interface. Seems that MS is still working on that.
UMADBRO - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
Cool story, bro!ludikraut - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
I can see the applicability of the Metro UI for business environments where you want to tightly control what users are able to do - collections departments, order processors, bank tellers, etc. The Metro UI is inherently more intuitive than a locked down desktop. Many home users will potentially benefit from this as well, but the challenge will be in how easy it will be to configure the Metro UI for the average end user. As for power users, such as myself, I can appreciate the Metro UI on my tablet, but there is no way that I want anything to do with it on my main desktop machine unless Win8 can be configured to run Metro on one screen and the desktop on another.HMTK - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
My god, there are a lot of idiots commenting here. The Metro UI is indeed NOT suited for a pc. That's why you can easily change to the classic desktop. I would be surprised if Microsoft wouldn't let you choose a default UI or that you can push whatever setting with Group Policy in a business environment.Quit whining, you'll have the desktop you know and love. You can even have both in the same machine. Metro when you want to use your tablet as a tablet and the classic UI when you use a keyboard and mouse. Instead of a glorified surfboard like an iPad you'll have that AND a laptop.
Rand - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
The article specifically says you cannot disable Metro, it is always there. If you want to launch an application you use Metro. If you're booting, you boot to Metro.If you want to change system settings you use Metro.
It doesn't matter if you're on a server platform or a tablet, you use Metro. You cannot choose a default UI. It's Metro on all platforms, regardless of what interface device you use.
The "idiots" are the ones who read the article and listen to what MS has very clearly said. You cannot just use the desktop, and the start menu is gone permanently.
The desktop is effectively a legacy UI, there for backwards compatibility.
You will not just be using the desktop on any platform, or any interface.
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
To be clear, the Desktop and the taskbar are fully functional for desktop applications. The start menu is indeed gone, and trying to use quick search to launch something requires going back to Metro, but that's all that has been lost for desktop applications. You can still use the Desktop almost exclusively by putting program icons on the desktop or pinning them to the taskbar.I'm not sure it's going to be practical to do that without the Start Menu, but as it stands that's what's available.
Exodite - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
To me that's equivalent of removing the desktop mode entirely, as filling my desktop or taskbar with random icons is pretty much the definition of inefficiency.Personal opinion obviously but that solution sounds like, well, iOS.
Exodite - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Then again I'm one of those people who hated the removal of the old start menu in W7, as well as the lack of a W2K theme that didn't look like crap.UMADBRO - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Then go install Windows 2000 and put your blinders on, you old fart.Exodite - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 - link
*sigh* With that attitude you should probably be hanging out on Engadget or something.