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windows 8 - what's waiting for us?
If you like Windows 7, you will be interested to learn that its heir is already in advanced development stages. Last week, screen shots of Windows 8 leaked online, according to which it is expected to be innovative and armed with conceptions and tools we haven’t seen from Microsoft yet.
Among the screen shots appeared the opening screen for the future OS; Time magazine stated that the fonts are identical to the Phone 7, Microsoft’s smartphones OS; a slew of estimates and predictions immediately appeared online regarding Windows 8 and what it will contain.
A lighter faster system
According to a report by Cnet, Microsoft is developing Windows 8 in collaboration with a number of ARM processors – Envida, Qualcom and Texas instruments. ARM processors motivate the current tablets and will soon operate Netbooks as well. Their advantages are low costs, efficient operation and reasonable performance – as long as no demanding OS is used (like Windows 7).
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supports slower processors
Windows 8 will have a completely new architecture that will make it extremely efficient with regards to the systems resources. Meaning, if an ARM processor operates it at reasonable speed, computers with an X86 Intel or AMD processor will fly it to the moon. A light OS on top of a powerful computer will allow immediate action – without “Starting Windows” accompanied by the flying logo. Instead the system will just start working.
Windows 8 compatibility with ARM will open the tablet market wide open for Microsoft. However, it will need to go through quite a few adjustments to make it comfortable for use on touch devices as well. Although Microsoft improved the interface and compatibility of Windows 7 it’s still a cumbersome OS that requires double clicking and a lot of effort to work on a tablet. What to do? Re-invent the interface.
Tile interface: who needs it?
One of the other things expected to change on Windows 8 is the interface. Windows 7 is efficient, comfortable and stable. Fun? Not really. Pictures leaked online show a new control menu incorporated in the files explorer. The menu has a Ribbon design, reminiscent of the 2010 office menus. Instead of a menu opening a sub menu and other sub menus, each category on the menu changes the entire menu.
The pictures shown also show the IE 9 browser that includes tile design – the design used on Windows Phone 7. The tiles are small windows that constitute a widget to one program or another and enable easy display of information from a number of programs (email, downloading a file, installing software and more) simultaneously.
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According to the estimates, the tile design will not be a part of the main interface but a tool to use according to necessity. The reason for this reduction in the interface is that most users don’t have touch devices yet and still need a standard OS based on a mouse and keyboard. Among the other improvements planned for the Windows 8 a built in facial recognition component for security purposes and users management were mentioned.
The expected improvements for Windows 8 are backed by a new conception of Microsoft. According to the company, we are quite predictable, because we have a tendency to group certain actions into a predetermined list of assignments. For example, a lot of people press refresh after the same actions, like saving a file they’ve been working on in regular intervals and more. Microsoft succeeded in mapping some of these assignments so that Windows 8 can guess and save time.
You can learn a lot about this conception by examining Phone 7: from within the contacts you can make a call, send a text message, email, Facebook notification (as well as watch their profiles and post their wall) and more. Phone 7’s mission is “communication with people”, on all its digital layers. This means that unlike its predecessors, who displayed a variety of options that the average user doesn’t really need, Windows 8 will recognize the processes we create on our computer and support them.
Behind all the improvements that will be included in Windows 8 stands Microsoft’s 2007 trauma; the launch of Vista. If you forgot, this was a cumbersome, heavy, loaded with bugs and unnecessary information OS which is still considered as one of Microsoft’s biggest failures. It was a disaster: a lot of computer consumers who purchased the computer with Vista installed quickly changed the OS to XP.
Windows 7 had to cope with the damage Vista caused. Microsoft had to build Windows 7 from a very low stage to fix all the problems in Vista. Windows 8 relies on 7 which is very valued. Microsoft engineers don’t have to cope with putting out fires and can focus on developing new tools and capabilities. According to “International Business Times”, one of them will be a better implementation of various cloud services in the OS. For example, an online software store, integration with Live services and more.