Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Microsoft Windows 8

I was browsing tech news a couple of weeks ago and came across this article about Microsoft Windows 8 and its anticipated mass market release in September or October.  One of the take-aways from the article for me was this bit:

"Microsoft's future path is riding on Windows 8 and its success," said Gartner Inc. analyst David Cearley. "This is a chance for Microsoft to re-establish itself in a market where it's becoming increasingly irrelevant."

The article goes on to point out that the computing architectures that people use are shifting from the traditional PC and rapidly moving towards mobile architectures like Android and IOS tablets and smart phones.

Finally, one more bit caught my attention:

"Windows 8 is radically different from its predecessors. The system won't even have Microsoft's familiar "Start" menu. All applications are spread across a mosaic of tiles, as part of a design Microsoft calls "Metro." The tiles, which resemble road signs, can be navigated with a swipe of the finger on the display screen or with a keyboard and a computer mouse. The tiles also provide a glimpse at the activity occurring in applications connected to the Web, such as email."

Uh, oh.  When Ubuntu recently decided to somewhat arbitrarily come out with their "radically different" Unity interface, users voted with their feet.  Within weeks Linux MINT became the new top Linux Distribution, and has been increasing its lead ever since.

Looks like there are more interesting times ahead for Microsoft.

--Doug
doug@parrot-farm.net