With Windows 8 on the horizon many customers are beginning to ask us questions about the forthcoming operating system from Microsoft, especially as the focus being placed on Windows 8 is that it will be a great new interface for touch.
Before we cut to a video we should answer a two simple questions as best we can. First, Windows 8 will run on any hardware that currently runs Windows 7. That means a minimum 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM and 16GB storage (it won't actually fill 16GB). Second, it won't be released until mid-late 2012.
Now take a look at our video below to get a tour of the new OS features and then continue reading below our thoughts about Windows 8 and what it will mean for business.
The most obvious change to Windows 8 is the implementation of a new Start screen utilizing a metro theme inspired by Windows Phone 7 encompassing tiles that access apps and that in some cases display information feeds from the app. What is instantly obvious about this home screen is that whilst graphically interesting and user friendly it only works with newly written apps designed to work specifically within the framework of the Start screen experience, essentially written HTML5 web technologies. What is also apparent is that many of the apps are slow despite their simplicity.
What this immediately means to most business users is that Windows 8 is placing an undesirable hurdle right at the start of your Windows experience, a hurdle you must clear before running legacy apps on the Desktop. It is unclear at this stage whether or not the new graphical features and Start screen can be disabled, although you'd like to assume it would be possible as the new elements are inefficient to interact with without touch and there is no end-of-life chartered for desktop PC users that do not have a touch screen. Whilst it has been realistically forecasted that mobile devices will outsell traditional PCs some time in the near future, that shouldn't mean we all have surrender the traditional input devices - i.e. mouse and keyboard.
It's not hard however to see the potential benefits of the Start screen. This may be more applicable to home users and their computer habits however. Having a screen that is pulling information from your inbox, calendar, social networks, news networks etc is appealing to a person whose primary use of a computer is to surf the internet to individual sites offering these services singularly. Of course most business users are far more traditional in their PC use, focussing their time on using productivity software. With specific regard to business use of tablets, usage is nearly always narrowed to a single application, typically bespoke. With that in mind software developers for both consumer and business software can prospect writing software for the Windows 8 start screen. Whilst there is nothing it can do that could not already be done with sufficient programming effort, it might be the case that the new framework offers potential for some software scenarios. Microsoft have created a new App Store for inclusion in Windows 8 and this will be the only place to obtain Metro style apps for the Start screen. Apart from being a catch-up move from Microsoft to parallel the hugely successful apps store of Apple and Google, it is a major change in the way Microsoft handles software written for its operating system, reigning in some control for the first time ever. The reception of this change and its effect remains to be seen.
Something we find significant in Windows 8 is the system Microsoft have come up with for control the OS on a macro level, kind of a new way of handling multi-tasking. As you'll observe from the above video many of the core operating system features in Windows 8 are inward gestures from the edge of the screen. To safeguard this system Microsoft has specified criteria for Windows 8 tablets, in essence that the screen surface should run off past the display perimeter. Many modern devices implement this entirely flush display surface and so it may not seem like a tall order. However many devices are built with a bezel for a specific reason and they are not simply an outdated design. One of the key reasons to implement a bezel is to protect the device from ingress of water and dust. Another reason is as part of a modular design that enables easy replacement of the various layers of a touch screen (screens that are flush are usually glued). There are 2 points then to consider here. First, it may be a little tricky to make an inward gesture on some touch screens. Second, do we need a more graphically interesting finger-dancing approach to multi-tasking? In Windows 7 the task bar gain some weight and we received the Aero theme allowing us to peak at running apps. Also, the taskbar shows all the apps running, the familiar Alt+Tab meant you could see them even larger and with Windows key + Tab you could flip through them all like a rolodex. Windows 8 serves up new features where for many the old ones are yet to be fully discovered.
Something that we do like is full-screen apps and for a touch experience the new chrome-less full screen Internet Explorer is actually really nice to use. It's not a major difference in the amount of extra web page you get to see but it makes a difference. However full-screen apps are the mainstay of small-screen devices that either don't multi-task, or multi-task very little. They also some means to get out of full-screen and back to where you started, either with hardware buttons, some exit button within the software, some OS over-layed control buttons, or in the case of Windows 8 this new clever inward swiping. In some ways we see the system as a miniature success - Microsoft have implemented full-screen functionality with multi-tasking control. We just wish you could better see everything that was currently running more easily then swiping through apps until you get to the one you were looking for. Something that finally became obvious was we didn't have easy control over exiting apps either. We presume Microsoft will implement a touch friendly version of the Windows Task Manager to bridge this void.
In summary Windows 8 leaves us apprehensive. The new graphical OS has a little way to go so satisfy the consumer in us, but impressed that Microsoft have done this much so far and in many way broken new ground. However as business users we don't care to compare the titan of an OS that Windows is with Apple's iOS or Google's Android. Historically it has always been software titles that have driven platform choice. What remains to be seen now is whether new software will make Windows 8 a "must have" or a "wait until Windows 9". After all, many of you are still using XP without complaint.
