Earlier this week, Microsoft released a sneak peak of Windows 8, the next major rethink of its operating system, which is expected to go on sale later this year.
As tablets and smart phones have started to replace desktops and laptops,
and as increasingly sophisticated Web services have grown in
importance, Microsoft has fallen behind the likes of Apple, Google, and
Facebook in providing the software that most people use every day.
Windows 8 represents an attempt to catch up and remain relevant.
Although unfinished (and subject to significant changes before its
official release), Windows 8 looks set to be the most radical
reinvention of Microsoft's operating system since Windows 95. It blurs
the line between desktop and mobile computing, and contains some clever
tricks that could help Microsoft push into mobile, social networking,
and consumer cloud services. But the combination of a tablet and a
desktop interface may also prove confusing for some users.
I didn't test Windows 8 on a touch-screen device, but then most
people will encounter Windows 8 on a new laptop or desktop. While 62.5
million tablets were sold in 2011, according to IDC, that's only 15
percent of all the PCs sold.
Instead of developing one version of Windows for tablets and another
for desktops—as Apple has done with OSX and iOS—Microsoft chose to build
an operating system that does it all. It's an approach that makes sense
for Microsoft, since it will help introduce users to its mobile operating system.
After installing this Windows 8 preview, the first thing you'll
notice is that, instead of the familiar Windows desktop, you're met with
a series of tiles, each representing a different application or online
service. This new start screen is based on Metro, the interface
Microsoft created for Windows Phone, and it includes many of the same features as that OS. Each tile can be more than just a button, showing the latest updates
from a program underneath—a new e-mail message, Facebook post, or
tweet, or an upcoming calendar event. And it's simple to rearrange the
tiles to make all this information accessible at a glance.
The regular Windows desktop is still there, it's just hidden
underneath this start screen; one of the tiles on this screen will still
take you to a familiar-looking Window 7-like interface—complete with
windows, a task bar, and normal Windows applications. But it's
impossible to use the OS without returning to the Metro start screen
every time you want to start an application. By right-clicking on the
bottom left corner of the screen, you can access things like control
panel, search, run, and the command prompt.
Even on a nontouch screen device, the Metro-style interface is
intuitive and slick. It feels very different from any previous version
of Windows, and distinct from either Apple or Google's mobile operating systems.
Windows 8 also comes with several tablet-style apps, which are shown on
the start screen, as well as Metro versions of existing applications
like Mail and Internet Explorer.
I found the Metro version of some apps, like Internet Explorer 10,
surprisingly enjoyable even on a desktop computer—all of the browser
"chrome" disappears while you're reading a webpage; the useful stuff
(the address bar, tabs, settings) returns with a click or a swipe. But
having two versions of certain apps, and thus two different ways of
doing things, could prove confusing for some people.
Using a regular mouse and keyboard with the Metro interface can be
clunky. Opening and closing apps, for instance, requires grabbing them
from the top and pulling them to the bottom of the screen. Some Metro
apps, like the Finance one, are probably well-suited to a tablet but
felt out of place on a regular PC.
Merging the two interfaces means the Windows button is replaced by
the Metro start screen. In the conventional desktop mode, clicking the
bottom left corner of the screen, or hitting the Windows button on your
keyboard, simply returns you to the start screen. This takes some
getting used to, and it seems like a compromise made at the expense of
usability on an ordinary laptop or desktop.
Another big change with Windows 8 is its connection to the cloud.
Whenever you log into another machine running Windows 8—with an e-mail
address and password tied to Windows Live—you'll see the same start
screen and have all your other preferences in place. It's a smart move,
and most people will find it convenient.
You can also connect your Windows 8 (and Windows Live) account to
various online services—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.—and these will
also automatically be set up when you log in somewhere else. And, of
course, you'll have access to all the documents you've saved on
Microsoft's cloud service, SkyDrive.
Again, though, these cloud features work best in the Metro mode—I
couldn't see a simple way to access SkyDrive from regular old Windows
Explorer, for example.
Windows 8 also tries to be the glue that holds your online social
life together—another innovation borrowed from Windows Phone. An app
called People grabs contacts from online services like Facebook and Twitter
(with your permission, of course) to create a single address book and
social platform. The app shows Facebook and Twitter updates neatly
together, and lets you reply, post, and comment without ever leaving
Windows 8.
Once a Facebook friend
has connected his or her account to Windows 8, you can chat live via
Microsoft's Messenger app, and other Windows 8 apps are designed to
encourage sharing via the People App. Many people will probably find
this useful, but since it lacks the nuances of the actual Facebook or
Twitter interfaces, it seems an innovation best suited to a mobile
device.
Windows 8 introduces an app store, similar to Apple's and Google's.
It's sparsely populated at the moment (I found only three "social" apps,
for example), but that's hardly surprising given that the OS is still
in development.
In fact, Windows 8 clearly presents a neat opportunity: putting a
tablet and desktop OS together should encourage Microsoft's army of
developers to start building many more tablet and mobile Windows
apps. From now on, if you're developing a desktop app for Windows 8,
it'll make sense to make it tablet-compatible from the start. Microsoft
has also released development tools to make it easier to build programs
that work both as Metro apps and desktop applications.
Overall, Windows 8 shows an impressive amount of innovation, and many
of its features promise to work extremely well on touch-operated
devices. But the decision to merge the Metro interface with a
conventional Windows desktop, while clever from a strategic perspective,
is a bit frustrating. Given enough time, I'm sure I'd get used to
Windows 8's split personality; but I'm not sure it would make any more
sense.
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