News & Analysis
Comment
elctrnx_lyf
Sound like a box office hit. Looking forward see this soon on my computer. If ...
cdhmanning
Microsoft shows off 're-imagined' Windows
Dylan McGrath
9/13/2011 1:59 PM EDT
ANAHEIM, Calif.—Microsoft Corp. Tuesday (Sept. 13) gave the most detailed preview yet of the next major release of its Windows operating system, which features support for processors based on the ARM architecture, touch screens and a "metro style" interface.
"We re-imagined Windows," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, in the keynote address at the Microsoft Build conference here. "From the chipset to the user experience, Windows 8 brings a new range of capabilities without compromise."
Microsoft will officially release a developer pre-release of Microsoft 8 at Build Tuesday evening. Sinofsky said the company will later release a beta version of the OS and then, finally, the full version of Windows 8. He did not provide a timeline. "We are going to be driven by the quality and not by a date," Sinofsky said.
In the keynote presentation, Microsoft took pains to demonstrate the ease of writing applications for Windows 8. The company offered a demonstration of writing a photo-sharing application on stage in only 58 lines of code.
Sinofsky said Windows 8 will allow developers to write applications in several different languages, including Xaml, Javascript, C++ and others. ""You have your choice of world class development tools and languages," he told developers in the audience.
Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live Division, speaks at the company's Build conference Tuesday.
Questions about compatibility have lingered around Windows 8, with some OEMs saying privately that Microsoft has been less than forthcoming with information about whether Windows for ARM-based systems would support all applications built for x86 systems. Sinofsky seemed to be trying to lay these concerns to rest by emphasizing compatibility, saying that applications built for Windows 8 will run on all hardware that Windows 8 supports.
"These applications will run on all new Windows 8 PCs," Sinofsky said.
In addition to ARM-based and x86 chipsets, Windows 8 will support x64 and x32 devices, according to Microsoft.
Sinofsky also touched on the Windows Store, which he said will allow developers to sell their applications worldwide. "Every new Windows PC is a target customer," he told developers. "Realize, that could be more than 400 million people when this project launches."
The start screen for Windows 8.
Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of the planning and PC ecosystem team at Microsoft, showed demonstrations of Windows 8 running on tablets and notebooks powered by Qualcomm Inc.'s Snapdragon processor, Texas Instruments Inc.'s OMAP, Nvida Corp.'s Tegra and Intel Corp. processors, including Ultrabooks, Intel's early-stage concept for ultra-light, low-power notebooks.
Microsoft also emphasized the boot up speed of Windows 8 PCs compared to those that run previous versions of Windows. Angiulo said the boot up speed is roughly eight seconds and that some early systems can actually boot up faster than the monitor can turn on.
Microsoft said ultra-thin PCs and tablets that run Windows 8 will run all day on a single charge and stay connected to the Internet.
Windows 8 will also feature an enhanced Task Manager and Windows Explorer and new, flexible options for multimonitor setups. Sinofsky joked that "it's been about 20 years" since Microsoft updated the Windows Task Manager.
Sinofsky said Windows 8 applications communicate with each other to create a more powerful system. "We had this bold notion that apps should work together as a web of apps on your machine," he said. "That when you get new apps the apps would work together and the system just gets richer and richer."
Chris Jones, senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live, demonstrated features on Windows 8 to support cloud-based services, including a metro-style mail client that manages multiple e-mail accounts from one location and a photo-sharing application that manages photos stored on multiple devices.
"We re-imagined Windows," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, in the keynote address at the Microsoft Build conference here. "From the chipset to the user experience, Windows 8 brings a new range of capabilities without compromise."
Microsoft will officially release a developer pre-release of Microsoft 8 at Build Tuesday evening. Sinofsky said the company will later release a beta version of the OS and then, finally, the full version of Windows 8. He did not provide a timeline. "We are going to be driven by the quality and not by a date," Sinofsky said.
In the keynote presentation, Microsoft took pains to demonstrate the ease of writing applications for Windows 8. The company offered a demonstration of writing a photo-sharing application on stage in only 58 lines of code.
Sinofsky said Windows 8 will allow developers to write applications in several different languages, including Xaml, Javascript, C++ and others. ""You have your choice of world class development tools and languages," he told developers in the audience.
Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live Division, speaks at the company's Build conference Tuesday.
Questions about compatibility have lingered around Windows 8, with some OEMs saying privately that Microsoft has been less than forthcoming with information about whether Windows for ARM-based systems would support all applications built for x86 systems. Sinofsky seemed to be trying to lay these concerns to rest by emphasizing compatibility, saying that applications built for Windows 8 will run on all hardware that Windows 8 supports.
"These applications will run on all new Windows 8 PCs," Sinofsky said.
In addition to ARM-based and x86 chipsets, Windows 8 will support x64 and x32 devices, according to Microsoft.
Sinofsky also touched on the Windows Store, which he said will allow developers to sell their applications worldwide. "Every new Windows PC is a target customer," he told developers. "Realize, that could be more than 400 million people when this project launches."
The start screen for Windows 8.
Michael Angiulo, corporate vice president of the planning and PC ecosystem team at Microsoft, showed demonstrations of Windows 8 running on tablets and notebooks powered by Qualcomm Inc.'s Snapdragon processor, Texas Instruments Inc.'s OMAP, Nvida Corp.'s Tegra and Intel Corp. processors, including Ultrabooks, Intel's early-stage concept for ultra-light, low-power notebooks.
Microsoft also emphasized the boot up speed of Windows 8 PCs compared to those that run previous versions of Windows. Angiulo said the boot up speed is roughly eight seconds and that some early systems can actually boot up faster than the monitor can turn on.
Microsoft said ultra-thin PCs and tablets that run Windows 8 will run all day on a single charge and stay connected to the Internet.
Windows 8 will also feature an enhanced Task Manager and Windows Explorer and new, flexible options for multimonitor setups. Sinofsky joked that "it's been about 20 years" since Microsoft updated the Windows Task Manager.
Sinofsky said Windows 8 applications communicate with each other to create a more powerful system. "We had this bold notion that apps should work together as a web of apps on your machine," he said. "That when you get new apps the apps would work together and the system just gets richer and richer."
Chris Jones, senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live, demonstrated features on Windows 8 to support cloud-based services, including a metro-style mail client that manages multiple e-mail accounts from one location and a photo-sharing application that manages photos stored on multiple devices.
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
Luis Sanchez
9/13/2011 11:49 PM EDT
i think the killer app will be to provide a seamless integration between the mobile phone and the PC and tablet.
Imaging being able to transfer pictures and files from the PC to the mobile phone just by using the touch screen and gestures.
I think Windows 8 will take us closer to that but... not quite there yet. Who will win? Apple?
Sign in to Reply
cdhmanning
9/19/2011 12:07 AM EDT
That is already available. It is called cloud computing.
Having to transfer files from one device to another is a defect of the current architecture where you have to consider storage. Clouding will fix that.
Sign in to Reply
goafrit
9/14/2011 5:32 PM EDT
It looks really fresh and I hope it helps them. I am not afraid of Google because what they are doing is scary. They want to own the world and Microsoft must stay alive to defend us all.
Sign in to Reply
chanj
9/15/2011 5:09 PM EDT
Just by looking at the startup screen, I feel like the screen of Windows Mobile is ported to a desktop or tablet. This seems to be a direction to go. Apple is doing similar thing. The question how many people are going to like the feature.
I agree with Sanchez. The killer feature will really be 1 click to transfer photos. More integrations between mobile devices and PC are going to happen. On the other hands, ensure data consistence and security among all "device" is also an important features. What do you think?
Sign in to Reply
Frank Eory
9/15/2011 7:32 PM EDT
The start screen gives me the feeling that Windows 8 will be a great OS for mobile devices. I'm just not so sure how much I will like it on my desktop PC compared to Windows 7.
Sign in to Reply
dylan.mcgrath
9/16/2011 12:56 PM EDT
@Frank- It's possible that I've been brainwashed by spending most of the week at the Microsoft Build event, but I have to say that I am bullish on Windows 8. It seems like it's going to be pretty darned cool. I agree that it will take some getting used to on a desktop (just as all major Windows changes throw us for a loop for some period of time). But once the world is used to it, I think we are all going to get pretty comfortable with it pretty quickly.
Sign in to Reply
cas.fox.com
9/18/2011 6:20 PM EDT
They realized with Windows 7 that a lot of home consumers were moving towards the home theater / media center pc design, many of which are operated by remote control or mini wireless keyboard and it seems like they are steering more towards that direction with this new desktop design.
Sign in to Reply
elctrnx_lyf
9/19/2011 12:02 PM EDT
Sound like a box office hit. Looking forward see this soon on my computer. If there is a light weight OS that can run on tablets and if the same can be scaled to be used on the desktops, it could be a real killer. Looks like Microsoft is coming back with big bang!!
Sign in to Reply