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
The Technical Side Of Windows 8
As we mentioned in the opening of this article, the single biggest addition to Windows 8 coming from Windows 7 will be Metro. Microsoft’s last major overhaul of Windows’ underpinnings was Windows Vista, and like Windows 7 before it, Microsoft is not looking to significantly alter the operation of the Windows kernel or related systems for Windows 8. With that said this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any technical changes that will ship with Windows 8.
Fundamentally Microsoft wants to keep the system requirements for Windows 8 the same as Windows 7, which means it needs to run (with varying definitions of “smoothly”) on a 1GHz CPU paired with 1GB of RAM and a DX9 class GPU. Realistically as their published requirements stand there is one difference from Windows 7: Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). Windows 7 would work with older XPDM drivers (albeit without any of the benefits of WDDM), however Windows 8 specifically mentions WDDM as a requirement. This makes sense given the greater reliance on the GPU for Metro, but it also means there are going to be some machines out there using very early DX9 GPUs (e.g. Intel GMA 900) that won’t be able to run Windows 8 due to a lack of video drivers.
In any case the addition of ARM into the mix will be sure to spice things up., While Microsoft is optimizing Windows 8 to run on ARM CPUs there’s a vast range of ARM CPUs, and this is the full version of Windows. Microsoft’s current system requirements are easily discernable as x86 based, and we’d expect the ARM requirements to be fairly high to keep pace. Give the launch of quad core ARM SoCs later this year, it’s likely that will be a popular pairing with Windows 8 when it launches.
On a final note about system requirements, while Microsoft isn’t talking about specific versions of Windows 8 at this time, they’ve made it clear that x86 will live on for at least one more generation in order to fulfill their desire to have Windows 8 run on everything Windows 7 ran on. So x86 versions of Windows should be expected.
Moving on, as this was a press session as opposed to a technical session, Microsoft was a bit light on the details. We’re expecting quite a bit more in the next couple of days, but for the moment we’ve only been briefed on a few user-facing technologies that are new to Windows 8.
On the hardcore side of things, Microsoft has added a few tricks to Windows in order to keep memory usage from growing and to make the OS better suited for tablets. On the memory side they have added Page Combining, which will combine duplicate memory pages into a single page. This is primarily to reduce the overhead from multiple applications all having copies of the same shared resource by having applications outright share that resource’s memory pages. Page Combining will primarily be a tool for reclaiming memory when memory usage is approaching critical levels.
For making the OS better suited for tablet hardware, Microsoft has focused on small changes that can help the hardware sleep longer and wake up less often. Coalescing system timers and a dynamic tick mechanism are two such features that will be coming to Windows 8 (unfortunately we don’t have any more details on their function at this time). Meanwhile Metro will play a big part in making Windows tablet friendly, as Metro applications will be designed from the start to be able to handle phone/tablet style process management. This is to say that discarded applications will continue to stay open as a background application, having all of their memory pages intact but unable to schedule CPU time so long as they’re a background application. They’ll remain in this state until the OS decides to evict them, at which point they need to be able to gracefully shut down and resume when the user re-launches the application. Internally Microsoft calls this freezing and rehydrating an application.
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cldudley - Thursday, September 15, 2011 - link
I see these arguments all the time about the application that use the ribbon-based UI, but I don't really see the problem... The most common features are located obviously and are easy to find, what are you using that is inconvenient? Mail-merge maybe, or something less obvious?I put together plenty of spreadsheets and documents using Excel/Word 2010, and I have used AutoCAD 2011 pretty extensively too, and I have no problem with the ribbon.
Maybe I am not doing the tasks you are doing, I write software for specialized controllers, produce drawings and layouts for industrial electrical control equipment, plus write documentation, memos, various tables and schedules, etc. At home I write letters, do the budget, different types of software development, game, etc, and I do not have any of these complaints.
I think the reality for 99.9999% of people is just the curmudgeon factor. "It's not what I am used to, so I don't like it."
gmknobl - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
It appears MS is going for a real sea change here. What's hidden may not be either evolutionary or revolutionary but the GUI appears revolutionary, and that's not necessarily good.If they keep this to tablets only, they'll have to have a big hardware push at the same time and NO issues. In other words, a system that works as well or better than iOS from the start or they are in trouble in the tablet space. However, I think this is their best bet.
But as it stands now, if this isn't an easily disabled option for business and home non-tablet, non-phone computing it will fail in that area completely. One thing Apple got right with their OSes has been usability. (I think Amiga did too back in the day, and Android has now too.) MS has taken around three tries before it got a truly usable OS each time, including Win 7 which is essentially Vista SP2. They can't afford that this time. I cannot see this succeeding with desktops or laptops in the least. It's just too jarring, now matter how innovative it may be.
And I think the whole solid color flat 2d look is dead anyway but that's personal preference.
avddreamr - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
While this format can and does work adequately in a mobile or rather hand held format the compromises that are made for this sort of functionality are simply unacceptable.I hope that this is obvious, because if that's the UI I have to deal with day to day... I will either not upgrade, switch to penguineware, or go fruity.
I would hope that with the vast collection of talent that works for microsoft have to know that the ui should be tailored for its specific use. Give me a 3d-taskbar, with scalable icons, and I'll be happy with the progress in my desktop.
I tell myself that they can't honestly be this stupid... but then I remember windows millennium.
CrapONez - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
I'm at a loss to see how/why Microsoft would abandon a legion of business customers and introduce a new interface requiring retraining, from a mobile device paradigm that it owns a scant few percentage points of. As Kelly Bundy would say: "It wobbles the mind!"alent1234 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
do companies really spend a lot of money on OS training?damianrobertjones - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
No they don't.Here is the training for Metro
"Do you see the massive Window for Icon there in purple... click it"
Opens Excel in the standard fashion.
"Do you see the saved excel spreadsheet there, right click and attach to the desktop/ui"
User scrolls tyo his/her Excel files.
User... "Ohh that's shiny"
cldudley - Thursday, September 15, 2011 - link
This. I have never had any computer "training" other than sitting down in front of the machine and using it.I may consult the online help quite a lot at first, but after I get used to how things work it all kind of comes together on it's own.
Certainly no employer has ever given me a training class for applications, in 2011 it is just assumed you know how to operate a Windows-based computer and basic Office applications. I don't think there is anything wrong with this assumption.
jecs - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Ok, tablets, I can see and understand.But do I have to pay full price for a tablet shell on a desktop or a workstation? And if W8 is mostly an interface would MS consider W8 a service pack for desktop use?
I want to skip W8 shell on my desktop, but I may like or need W8 other upgrades at a "fair" reduced price.
If MS does not understand this I wont pay for W8. Lets hope the best for W9.
damianrobertjones - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
They offered Windows 7 at a reduced pricedgingeri - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
It looks a lot like the old Star Trek LCARS system. Sure, LCARS was imaginary for the most part, but the guys who came up with it back when Star Trek: The Next Generation was in pre-production had the same basic ideas behind their design. I'm thinking Paramount might have an nice IP case against Microsoft for this one.