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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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.