The Blog Subscribe

As we have all been given a sneak peek of what the future will hold for Microsoft's operating systems, specially in regards of what they are going to do for touch-centric devices, I feel there are a few things that are not so talked about in the whole debate surrounding it.

What has been shown is in no doubt a radical departure from the previous versions of Windows. So different that it might as well ship with a different product name than "Windows", since those are no longer the prevalent features of the user interface. There will be backwards compatibility for the X86, or regular old Intel- and AMD-based computers you find everywhere, but apparently not so much for the version running on ARM chips. Makes sense to me and I applaud Microsoft for chucking out old baggage once and for all, even if it's just in one of the versions.

But Microsoft is not Apple and Windows is far more common than Mac OS X for an awful lot of people. That puts things in a quite interesting perspective. There are a lot of people out there who don't have any interest in computers, how they work or what makes them tick. They just use what they have because that is a part of their job. Period. Tossing a very different, radically different, user interface in their direction and I don't doubt that there will be a lot of friction in the world of corporate IT. For consumers and enthusiasts, this is a great move. For corporate, not so much.

With these huge changes there will arise a rather big need for education and there will doubtlessly be complaining and whining about how things are different and not what they are used to. Sound familiar? If you have worked in IT, I'm sure it is. It doesn't matter what minor change or alteration you make, there will be voices raised and complaints filed. Imagine how this will be with Metro instead of the old Windows.

In the department of hardware requirements, on the other hand, things are looking much better. Almost any old or relatively under-powered machine will be able to run Windows 8 and the user interface will largely depend on the screen resolution. A sensible way to make things work, at least for the most part. In this department I really can't complain too much about what Microsoft has done so far. Being a very early preview into how the system will work, though, I'm sure some requirement will change over time.

This is the more jolly side of the coin, compared to what problems that will probably arise in the human-computer interactions department. No huge investments will be needed in order to run the new system. I do wish there had been more talk about the ARM-version of Windows 8, as I can finally see something that will be a real option and alternative to the iPad. At least in the software department of things, assuming Microsoft manages to pull all the bits together at some point in the future.

I won't call it a winner or a looser at this point, just promising. Judging an unfinished product is not unfair but just plain wrong. I like what I have seen so far and think Microsoft have finally got their stuff together and are moving towards a better destination. But boy will there be some bumps along the way! I for one can't wait to see how all this plays out!

Robert Falck

Robert is a freelance tech journalist from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on Bagel Tech and on his site streakmachine.com or you can follow him on twitter @streakmachine.

Author

Robert Falck

Gold Subscriber : $20.00 USD - monthly Silver Subscriber : $10.00 USD - monthly Bronze Subscriber : $5.00 USD - monthly