WIndows 8: It's Official, It'll Look Just Like WIndows Phone! – 722 days old

[ZemaTalon]

Maybe touch screens are the future, and it is what we've seen in the modern Star Trek episodes, and it does look functional and logical there. But do we really want the Windows Phone GUI as a desktop interface?

Windows-8-start-menu.jpg

What Sinofsky showed off was the much-rumored tiles-based UI, which I exclusively revealed back in January. This user experience will be complementary to the normal Windows desktop, and can be used as is an iPad, with multitouch gestures. It looks and works much like the Start screen in Windows Phone 7 but actually uses completely different technologies under the covers. So there are Live Tiles, as with Windows Phone, but apps in this environment are based on HTML 5 and JavaScript, not Silverlight.

There's also a Windows Store (also revealed back in January), and the demo included peeks at a number of built-in tiles for stocks, email, calendar, weather, and so on. Sinofsky describes the new Windows 8 user experience as "the biggest change to Windows since Windows 95." He noted that the new UI would work only in full screen and would work equally well with keyboard and mouse, and on TVs, as it would on slate PCs.

Complete story at Paul Thurrott's Supersite for WIndows here, and here.

And for Microsoft's take on the whole thing, we have this, and this:

[Bad Haircut]

with a bit of luck should kill windows desktop stone dead

[Fingerle]

Oh Great... Now even Winblows is gonna be a "console" port. ROFLMAO!!!

Guess I best start polishing up my nix skills.

[Dark Angel]

So will it work with a Wii-mote or a Xbox controller? Some computer noob somewhere will still manage to screw it up royally I'm sure.

[Grogan]

Oh Great... Now even Winblows is gonna be a "console" port. ROFLMAO!!!

Good one... fabulous, even. Sums up what I think of that too. I find that kind of user interface nauseating.

I hate to spoil good, healthy ridicule, but a key point is:

This user experience will be complementary to the normal Windows desktop

So this will just be something stupid, like that Media Center shit. Hopefully there will be the means to get rid of it ("enable and disable Windows features"), like Media Center as well.

[Dark Angel]

I just replaced my phone and made a VERY conscious decision to avoid any Windows Mobile device like the PLAGUE! I also avoided certain brands that have taken to with Microsoft and liking it (Yes, I'm talking to you Nokia and htc) though Motorola probably do somewhere as well, I'm just not CURRENTLY aware of it.

One look at that interface and my reaction is "What the fu ... HELL no!"

At least I can ssh into my linux machines from my phone now. It's pointless (currently) other than to screw with my kids without getting off the lounge, but hey

[Fingerle]

I own a windows mobile running POS HTC touch pro. Forced myself to use it for a few months to see if It would "grow on me". It didn't. It now lives in it's box. IMHO not even worth trying to sell on fleabay. I'll never buy another Win mobile running device.

Just like the desktop winblows. it spends a lot of time killing the battery by doing unnecessary BS in the background.
I found it annoying to use. so went back to me old Motorola Razr flip phone. Now six years old and still kicking.

To be honest though, the HTC did come with one useful bit. To the tune of it's 2.5amp 5 volt power brick.
Power brick has a USB port on it instead of a cord. I use it to charge my Tom-Tom. Other nice use, Charges an ipod in half the time. ROFL.

[Alakazam]

Windows is bloated enough, now we'll have a couple of interfaces to choose from, LOL.

"Windows 8 will feature a "touch-first" interface to help it compete in the fast-growing tablet market, but underneath that will offer a more traditional Windows-style desktop. In demonstrations, Microsoft showed the touch-style start screen for Windows 8, and how users could switch to a more familiar icon-based interface."

An interesting article at ComputerWorld

[Lighthouse]

Microsoft is about to lose its primary user base: corporate users. While the current interface does not have the latest "gee whiz" effects of Apple, retraining everyone, including old farts like me who still haven't found where MS hid the features and adjustments that I used to have easy access to, will be a major barrier to "upgrading" for most users.

MS needs to stop trying to, a) chase Apple, and b) create some "universal interface" for all devices.

What I want from MS is to fix current problems, cleanup/speedup the software, and incorporate new features to accommodate new technology/devices. These problems are in the underlying "invisible" software, not in the user interface.

[Michael_Horatio]

MS needs to stop trying to, a) chase Apple

sure smacks of Apple wannabee desperation doesn't it.