Microsoft gives preview of Windows 8.....Moving to Apps.

[woo me with science]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386317,00.asp

9 Questions About Windows 8

By Michael Muchmore

After months of speculation and leaks, most of which turned out to be fake, Microsoft finally showed off a preview of Windows 8 at the D9 conference this week. The new OS is a drastic break from previous Windows versions, and the company has learned a lot from the two competitors that most threaten its existence: Apple and Google. What we've seen of Windows 8 shows a clear emphasis on touch-capable interfaces and optimization for smaller devices like tablets—a market owned currently by Apple with its iPad and one that Windows 8 targets head-on.

And from Microsoft's other would-be nemesis, Google, comes the idea of all apps being Web apps. According to Microsoft, new Windows 8 apps will be built on HTML5 and JavaScript—just like Web apps.

But the Redmond-based software giant steals from its own stable of ideas as well, most dramatically in its use of the Metro, tile-based interface of Windows Phone 7. From Windows 7 comes the ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, à la Aero Snap.

....

1. Where's the app store?
Another feature not discussed was an app store—something that has appeared previously in the Windows 8 rumor mill. It would be hard to imagine Microsoft not introducing an app store, since all its tablet competitiors have one. And with Mac OS X's app store easing installation and updating, Microsoft would be remiss not to follow that lead.....(much more at link)



...................................
I particularly like the last sentence here:

...we hope that existing loyal Windows users don't get gouged.

Does the move toward apps. mean that Windows users will have to shell out more money on a regular basis in order to obtain necessary applications?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hobbit709]

2. Save your money, buy a PC. Linux is FREE!

[RC]

10. I agree. Linux -Ubuntu OS are free and they work. They should capitalize on not being web based.

No way am I trusting my data to some else's "Cloud" Nor will I rent my "apps" or rather programs. They are either free or I pay for them once.

[backscatter712]

17. Running Ubuntu on my laptop, running Android on my smartphone!

Which means I'm on Linux both in the PC and the smartphone/tablet spheres.

[area51]

22. +1

There's also FreeBSD and PC-BSD.

[HopeHoops]

3. I'm shocked by how many applications don't list support for Win7 yet.

It isn't good enough that some will run in the 32 bit version. Why the fuck would anyone buy the 32 bit version of Win7? Home Premium 64 and Ultimate 64 are the real choices. I'll assume M$ will be late with Win8 (as usual), so hopefully the software companies will catch up before M$ fucks them up all over again.

[Lance_Boyle]

13. Not much advantage to 64-bit if you have

[HopeHoops]

15. Well THAT was enlightening. Was there more?

[Lance_Boyle]

16. hah! Damned HTML tags

64-bit is not much of an advantage if you have *LESS THAN* 3.25GB of RAM and don't need to run 64-bit software.

[HopeHoops]

19. Well, other than the fact that a lot of software REQUIRES 64 bit, I agree.

I know you said "don't need to run 64-bit", but that rules out a shitload of software. I'm not sure I'd want to run Win7 on less than 4GB anyway. I've got 24GB in my tower. That handles everything quite nicely, but when a lot of applications are open, especially VS2010, a lot more of it is in use than I initially expected to see.

[NightWatcher]

4. Apple sux, windows rawks.....but we have apps too and we're changing our name to

Indows. see we can be hip too

[brooklynite]

14. See, this is why they never catch on...

The I is always lower case...

[LAGC]

5. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to roll out some sort of subscription service for apps.

Like Netflix. "Utilize all the online office apps you want for one low, low price of only $19.99 per month!" or some shit like that.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. That is *absolutely* the direction in which they are *all* going.

[quinnox]

6. It seems like windows 7 just came out

I'm using Windows Vista and not changing for as long as possible, damn I hate windows versions updating so quickly, so greedy Microsoft!

[SecularMotion]

7. Microsoft dictates arrangements for tablets

Software maker asks Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments to select one hardware firm each.

Acer Inc. Corporate President Jim Wong said Wednesday during the Computex trade show in Taiwan that he is concerned about Microsoft's restrictions.

"The industry does not belong to Microsoft, and it does not belong to Intel," Wong said."It belongs to all participants. They cannot make the decision for all of us. That is the problem."

http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=465237

[malaise]

8. They sent me some overnight

for free

[Urban Prairie]

9. Many like me cannot upgrade beyond the Windows XP OS

b/c we can't afford to buy the hardware or even a flimsy off-brand laptop that will run Vista (eye-candy crap) or Windows 7, unless it is sold very cheap and used at garage-sales, Craigslist, eBay, flea-markets, or at best, a deeply discounted store return, the latter being how I once bought most of my now decade-old computer hardware. Closest that I can come to a contemporary OS now is by running a Linux/Unix distro.

[frylock]

12. i've installed windows 7 on a five year old laptop..

the requirements for win7 aren't as high as they were for vista.

[Shagbark Hickory]

11. OH shit. Not ANOTHER version!

[Xithras]

18. A Metro based Windows would be pretty nice.

A Metro based UI running on the Win7 x64 core would be stable and easy to use. Why didn't they do that years ago? Metro is already used by around 60 million people on a regular basis (it forms the UI core for the XBox and Zune). so its bugs are already worked out. In fact, if Microsoft were smart, they'd just drop the Windows name altogether and stick with Metro. It has a much better reputation in the computing world.

Interestingly, a Metro PC based solution already offers another advantage over its competitors. There are already POSIX emulators for Windows, and Java apps run natively, so I'd guess that we'll fairly quickly see emulators for Win8 that will allow iOS and Android apps to run on the Metro devices. Since Windows Mobile apps can already be adapted to Windows, Win8 couldpotentially be the one platform that could run everything. That would have a huge amount of appeal for many people.

[TroglodyteScholar]

20. ...