So Microsoft has decided to roll out next version of its flagship Windows operating system called Windows 8. The company has reimagined(?) the desktop experience and the result is that the desktops should be looked and used like tablets or smart phones. Since the introduction of Windows 8 Consumer Preview in the last year's build event, I attended several of the conferences, TechTalks, InfoDays organized by Microsoft and partners. In every event one question was frequently asked if the strategy to push all the desktop users to tablets was right.
Apple and Google are snatching up consumer market share from Microsoft and they needed a quick and solid response. For many years Microsoft led the innovation in the desktop PCs and notebooks domains and I was expecting such innovative responses. But what we see in Window 8 consumer preview is what the market already experienced in iPad, Andriod Tabs and in its own Windows Phone.
Once Microsoft was at the forefront of innovation in the IT industry. They made the desktop PC popular and revolutionized the computer industry. But now I felt a huge lack of innovation in MS's offerings like Windows 8. The Tile-Style user interface that Windows 8 has embraced is already in tablet PCs like iPad and Android Tabs. The same interface is already available in Linux based operating system Chrome OS that Google introduced on July 08, 2009 to the Internet community and later in November 19, 2009 announced the availability of the open sourced Chromium OS. Even the Ubuntu's Unity desktop, first implemented in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10, had tile-style gadgets and application icons.
As a long-term developer of Microsoft's system, I know how aggressively it will push the new OS to the consumers. The company will go in an all-out attack to force the OEM vendors, channel providers, developers, and above all the consumers to buy its products. We provide Windows based-systems to our clients, and know MS will stop the support for the older OS to push their new OS. So called Vendor lock-in forced us once to ship systems equipped with Windows Vista when the OS was not matured enough. That was a terrible experience for us. The complete overhaul of the Windows OS definitely poses a risk for my company to falling into the same trap.
I received my Samsung Series 7 11.6" Slate only last week. My evaluation for the Windows 8 is still under way. This post is just a hint of the psychological adjustments for the developers and end users who were so much accustomed to the desktop pc for so many years.
Apple and Google are snatching up consumer market share from Microsoft and they needed a quick and solid response. For many years Microsoft led the innovation in the desktop PCs and notebooks domains and I was expecting such innovative responses. But what we see in Window 8 consumer preview is what the market already experienced in iPad, Andriod Tabs and in its own Windows Phone.
Once Microsoft was at the forefront of innovation in the IT industry. They made the desktop PC popular and revolutionized the computer industry. But now I felt a huge lack of innovation in MS's offerings like Windows 8. The Tile-Style user interface that Windows 8 has embraced is already in tablet PCs like iPad and Android Tabs. The same interface is already available in Linux based operating system Chrome OS that Google introduced on July 08, 2009 to the Internet community and later in November 19, 2009 announced the availability of the open sourced Chromium OS. Even the Ubuntu's Unity desktop, first implemented in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10, had tile-style gadgets and application icons.
As a long-term developer of Microsoft's system, I know how aggressively it will push the new OS to the consumers. The company will go in an all-out attack to force the OEM vendors, channel providers, developers, and above all the consumers to buy its products. We provide Windows based-systems to our clients, and know MS will stop the support for the older OS to push their new OS. So called Vendor lock-in forced us once to ship systems equipped with Windows Vista when the OS was not matured enough. That was a terrible experience for us. The complete overhaul of the Windows OS definitely poses a risk for my company to falling into the same trap.
I received my Samsung Series 7 11.6" Slate only last week. My evaluation for the Windows 8 is still under way. This post is just a hint of the psychological adjustments for the developers and end users who were so much accustomed to the desktop pc for so many years.
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I think u may put the last para at the beginning, so that a reader may understand what u r trying to hit is ur initial judgement to window 8, not the final one. Nice overview though...
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