Year | Windows 7

Windows 8 Offers Big Questions

Sep 142011

Is Windows 8 the future?

That question seems to have set the blogosphere abuzz today, after Microsoft offered a two-hour Windows 8 demo during the first day of BUILD.

As with most demos (or at least the ones that don’t go horribly wrong), the wares on display were certainly impressive. Windows 8 represents a fairly radical departure from previous editions of Windows, in that it offers a touch-friendly user interface centered on a set of colorful tiles, paired to the “traditional” desktop environment. The former is for tablets; the latter, for desktops and laptops. Steven Sinofsky, Windows and Windows Live division president, showed off an early build of Windows 8 at its (presumably) smoothest and best, claiming that the operating system will be “equally at home on ARM and x86.”

That means, come the second half of 2012, Windows 8 will appear on a lot of laptops, desktops and tablets. (Microsoft remains squirrely about an exact release date, although one of their partners told me they’re working toward a roll-out sometime in the last six months of 2012.) Microsoft will need to convince users that the tech world’s evolved enough, in the three years since the release of Windows 7, to justify an upgrade to Windows 8. In the tablet arena, it will also need to battle some well-entrenched foes, most notably Apple’s iPad.

Windows 8 will include some features designed to appeal to mobility enthusiasts, including an application store, which will list win32 apps in addition to the “Metro” apps designed for tablet mode. The storefront looks altogether different than the app store for Windows Phone, although it likewise emphasizes games and other categories designed to appeal to consumers.

Microsoft made some friends among BUILD’s attendees by handing out Samsung tablets running a developer preview of Windows 8. The 11.6-inch device features SDK apps, a “recovery environment,” a dock to connect with a keyboard or dual monitor, a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD), 4GB of RAM and one year’s worth of AT&T 3G connectivity. It’s powered by an Intel chipset, and includes a microSD port.

A handful of Microsoft watchers and analysts couldn’t hide their enthusiasm for what Sinofsky showed them on the conference’s first day. Take a look at Paul Thurrott’s Tweet from Sept. 13, or Boy Genius Reports’ giant post of praise from the same day.

Windows 8 does make a lot of promises: compatibility with existing Windows apps, baked-in connectivity to the cloud, Xbox Live integration, the ability to connect a keyboard and dual monitor, fast booting, and a dual-interface environment that seems tailored to the needs of both casual consumers and power users. But as John Gruber pointed out on Daring Fireball, and I’ve said before on more than one occasion, this is the early stage of the game: it remains to be seen whether Microsoft can actualize on its promise of a “no compromises” operating system that manages to be all things to all users.

That’s not to say that Microsoft can’t pull it off. There’s little you can’t accomplish, at least in theory, with an army of genius and millions of dollars in funds. But it’ll be another year before we can start screaming, “iPad killer.” Plus Microsoft faces the not-inconsiderable challenge of convincing users to upgrade from Windows 7, which seems to be doing consumers and businesses just fine.

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The Last Days of Windows 7, Part 1

Windows 7 No Responses »

Sep 102011

Posted on Windows 7 News & Tips

In just a few short days at the BUILD conference in California, Microsoft will finally take the wraps off Windows 8 and we’ll see exactly what they’re going to offer us for a desktop operating system over the next three years. This means that we’re in the final few days of Windows 7 being ‘top dog’, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to have a look back over the operating system.

Tomorrow I’ll look at all the new features that Windows 7 introduced and try to examine the impact they have had on the end-user experience, especially on tablet devices. Today though let’s look at what Windows 7 did for Microsoft.

When Windows 7 went on sale in October 2009 Microsoft was deeply unpopular and Windows’ name was mud. This was all down to the hugely buggy Windows Vista, Microsoft biggest operating system mistake since Windows Me (which was so awful it didn’t even get a mention in the list of ‘great operating systems’ Steve Ballmer detailed at the Windows 7 launch [little geek factoid that])

Vista was very slow, required the fastest and finest hardware to run properly and features such as the new User Account Control were extremely annoying, with a great many users simply giving up and switching it off.

It was clear that Windows 7 had a mountain to climb and this was demonstrated right through the beta process where, despite great reviews, Microsoft had to constantly and very publicly reassure people that the performance issues with Vista had all been fixed.

It can safely be said that by the end of 2009, and the launch of Windows 7 many people were worried the product would sell at all. Too many people around the world could be heard regularly slating Microsoft and saying they would be sticking with XP because ‘it works’ and expressing no interest whatsoever because Windows 7 was ‘bound to be just as bad’.

Sales in the early days of Windows 7 were extremely strong however and it has sold more retail copies than any other version of the OS before it, something even Microsoft can’t explain. The strange thing was that, while in October 2009 you couldn’t talk to anybody about Windows and Microsoft without hearing derisory comments, only a year later at the end of 2010 people’s opinions had completely changed.

With Windows 7 Microsoft had pulled off possibly the greatest public relations coup in computing history. Sure, by this time people were still saying they would be sticking with XP but the ghosts of Vista had been completely vanquished, much to the great surprise of many people.

By the end of Windows 7′s second year XP has been effectively vanquished as well. Fewer people than ever before are using it as people are moving to Windows 7, and the number of people saying they’d be sticking with XP dropped from a torrent to a whisper. In less than two years Microsoft had elevated Windows 7 to the king of all operating systems, with a few security researchers even claiming it was more stable and secure than OS X.

There is no doubt currently that Windows 7 is the desktop operating system of choice for most people, but during its life a new threat emerged, that of the tablet and rise of other operating systems, most notably Google’s Android.

These challengers proved effectively that people no longer needed ‘familiarity’ with the operating system, if it was intuitive enough and tailored to their needs. As a result Windows 7 will very probably be the last generation with the ‘traditional’ Windows desktop taking prominence. This could give Windows 7 some longevity and, even though Microsoft’s accountants and shareholders would be upset by this, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

Windows 7 has legs. It’s secure, stable and this time, if people say “I’ll be sticking with Windows 7″ the answer from IT professionals should be to say fair enough. Windows 7, not just for it’s features, which I’ll look at tomorrow, but for the good will and generosity it created, is a monumental achievement.

The Last Days of Windows 7, Part 1 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips – Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Join us for the BUILD keynotes group liveblog: 13th & 14th September

blog, Windows 7 No Responses »

Sep 092011

If you haven’t heard by now, BUILD is the Microsoft conference to watch this year. Next week, Windows’s Steven Sinofsky and co. will be taking the secrecy wrap off Windows 8 for its grand developer debut.

If you can’t make it to sunny Anaheim, your favorite Microsoft bloggers will be bringing the keynotes live to the comfort of your computer desk.

Join Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, Kip Kniskern, Rafael Rivera, Paul Thurrott, Tom Warren and I on Tuesday the 13th and Wednesday the 14th at 9am for what should be two spectacular keynotes discussing the next major version of Windows. Make sure you don’t miss out.

And if you happen to be in Anaheim, make sure to check out the BUILD Blogger Bash where you can meet all of us in person. No actual bashing allowed though.