Windows 8
I spent
some time this weekend with Microsoft's new flagship operating system - Windows
8. The most noticeable and radical change in the new system is that there is NO start button. They have
replaced the start button with a big, vibrant & colorful start screen and
icons with multicolored tiles.
A quick walk-through
Moving the mouse to the bottom-left-corner (the original start
button location) will show a hidden start screen tile, which will take us back
to the home start screen. Similarly, moving the mouse to top-right-corner will
bring a "charms bar" with search option, which will be the
default way to find things in this non-start button windows operating system.
One of the tiles in the start screen is Desktop. If we click on
it, we will end up with the regular all familiar Windows environment
with task-bar, wallpaper, icons etc., but without a start button. This
will make us think that the new operating system is just a wrapper around
Windows 7 with start screen replacing the start button.
My Quick Take
At first glance, Windows 8 seems to be built for touch screens. It
is a bold step by Microsoft to build an operating system assuming future will
be all about touch screens. Microsoft's strategy was to build a single
operating system for all kind of devices (mobile or desktop). Unfortunately, their
vision seems to have been limited by hardware capabilities, so they have
decided to go in Apple's way (a la iOS & OS X) and built two different
operating systems - Win RT & Windows 8.
Apple owns both hardware & software, but Microsoft only builds
its software and depends on other hardware manufactures for the final product.
With Windows 8, Microsoft has taken a step to redefine, hardware (in particular
computer) manufacturers vision and is asking them to go in the direction of
touch screens for all devices. Don't get me wrong, Windows 8 will work fine in our regular non-touch screen laptop or desktop, but some of its
functionality will make us want for a touch screen. For e.g. - there is no
close button or familiar x mark in the top right corner, instead
we have to hold our mouse and drag the window down
towards task-bar and drop it, just like swiping the window
down - which I feel would be easier in a touch screen rather than using a
mouse.
Consumers will be given no choice, as the new laptops & desktops
will be pre-loaded with the new operating system. But, Microsoft's success
depends largely on how soon the corporate world embraces the new operating
system. Many of them balked on Windows Vista and are still moving to Windows 7.
Many of them just finished testing their applications in Windows 7 or Internet
Explorer 8, so I am not sure whether they will be in a hurry to move to a new
one. In the short-run I feel, Windows 8 will go the way of Windows
Vista & 7 and will go through a slow adoption process. If the new desktops
& laptops come with touch screens, corporate world will slowly move to
Windows 8 as they replace the old work computers with new ones.
posted by Shanmuganathan Sivaraj at
10:09 AM
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