Microsoft to bake Windows 8 in three flavours Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 will come in three versions. A post on the Windows Team Blog says “For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.” So far so mundane. But the post goes on to let us all know that there's a third version, …
As in the referenced blog article at
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/04/16/announcing-the-windows-8-editions.aspx
"For new apps, the focus for Windows RT is development on the new Windows runtime, or WinRT, which we unveiled in September and forms the foundation of a new generation of cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected apps of all kinds. "
> having seen the interface, Windows 8 will be an abortion.
Having used the interface I can confirm it is indeed an abortion.
It's full of creative, unusual and above all really fucking stupid ideas. Solitaire now has a banner inviting you to log into your xbox live account.
Think about that for a moment; multi-player features in solitaire.....
Its because you not logged in if you do it goes away. Live is not just multiplayer gameing there is so so much more to it like gamerscores avatar customisation chat etc and personally i dont get how that is a stupid idea esp as live is one of MS big success stories.
The interface also rocks but you dont like it then the desktop is still there. Taste is a personal thing so i wont say your wrong but personally i love it and i know many people that feel the same. Plus its so much faster already and thats on a beta! It seems people like you hate advancement im sure you would be much happier useing dos.
Going from Windows 3.11 - Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7...
So...if I skipped 95 I'd have ended up with 98, then Me, then XP, then 7
....if I was on 95, I'd skip 98, end up with 98SE, then 2000, then Vista...
....either way I'd have ended up with the fucking awful Me or Vista...so that theory - once again - is shown to be bollocks.
Ah yes, but you're considering 98SE as a seperate release rather than the 98 SP1 it actually was. Worth having, but not worth spending release money on to move to it from 98.
2k was on the NT track, not the consumer desktop track which limped off into ME land. While it made a great office desktop, it wasn't for general use as it lacked the back-compatibility with the consumer stream which materialised in XP.
So that's 3.11 --> 98 and/or SE --> XP --> 7. In meerkat terms, simples and the future is thus 9-shaped.
As for starting from 95, well that puts you firmly at the start of the "dog" track, giving you ME and Vista to look forward to and quite rightly so IMHO.
"While it made a great office desktop, it wasn't for general use as it lacked the back-compatibility with the consumer stream which materialised in XP"
That was so much bull.
I ran Win2k on my home machine for about 10 years before finally deciding Win7 was worth an upgrade. I never had any problems with hardware compatibility and during that time I went through at least 3 motherboards, 2 processors, several video cards and I don't know how many printers. Also I didn't have problems with any games working on it until the last couple of years when new titles became XP/Vista only. I used XP at work because it was the corporate standard but at no time did I feel the need to move my home machine to the Fischer Price OS.
So what were the consumer issues with Win2k?
I don't see that listed.
A shame, because Win 8 runs better than 7, snappy, boots fast, just has the UI From Hell, that makes Ubuntu's interface look sane - something I thought was impossible. Bloody hell even iOS would be better.
Also - x86 (32 and 64 versions) - I though x86 IS 32bit (confusingly illogical) and x64 IS 64bit (confusingly logical).
There are various addons to do this already, and a built in toggle is predictable:- Metro does not work below 1024x768. So yep, pull out a 1024x600 netbook, and on a machine with a tiny screen which would be ideal for Metro, you get no Metro, only the desktop.
I very, very much doubt it will be an exposed option, though.
No the x86 refures to the familly of processor not the bit count. It comes from the 8086 processor that came to be 286, 386 486 pentium etc. The first one ie 8086 was only 16bit. They just keep it for 32bit as people already recognise it as for that family of prosessor but they had to seporate then the 64 from the 32bit and then it got messy.
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"Windows RT: Windows Recycled Technology (with Genuine Metro (tm)) takes the best features of Microsoft's over-hyped, under performing Windows Phone 7 operating system (little tiley things all over your screen and a touch screen/keyboard/mouse mashup UI) and combines them with the worst-in-class marketing Microsoft are famous for as well as some random bits from Microsoft's previous desktop operating system (no, not Vista, the other one) to give users who are too stupid to buy an iPad something to play with."
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I like the speed of Windows 8 even on a low specification ten year out of date PC, I hate the silly nursery screen on start up but found out yesterday that some of the crap can be deleted. What are all the blobby thing there for other than to massage someone's misguided ego.
If I wanted to do many of those things I would NOT be sat at a desktop PC!
It makes no sense since clicking on any of the play blobs fill the screen blocking out everything else. Best go straight to desk top but how to find useful applications? Ah short cuts to clutter up the desktop.
So we now have Windows RD (Really Dumb) featuring a core that looked to be going the right way, but stuffed like a Christmas Turkey with all the stuff you neither want nor need.
Perhaps Windows Turkey edition might be a better name.
Richard
Still no Remote Desktop server on the "home" version?
Hint: If you want your product to be used in media centre-type devices then people need a way to manage the bloody things remotely. Fannying around with a keyboard/pointing device in a living room, even wireless, with a bloody great big screen 10ft away is no fun at all.
Sigh.
Still, at least there's not seventy gazillion versions this time.
Having used (suffered?) a Windows Media device as my only living room source for over five years now, I'd actually counter that by saying that familiarity with RDP is probably the minimum level of technical knowledge you should expect to have before considering one.
When it works it is is brilliant - great UI, easy access to just about anything (TV, photos, web, music, downloads, streaming), limitless integration with home network & hi-fi (no walled gardens, no pratical restriction on content/outputs/inputs/storage), and all controllable from one remote.
But when it throws a wobbler...pain, my friends, pain. So many undocumented fiddles, so many hours hunting updates/hacks, so many restores!
Having said that, I've gotten so used to the functionality that I now find most other setups so compromised that I'm willing to stick with it for now.
My wife isn't so convinced though ("Why's this bloody thing now working now?!"), and this is the reason I would never recommend one to anyone who doesn't know their IP address from their elbow.
OK, but at a petty level having to install a VNC server & clients is just another thing to make the experience less than complete. These things are meant to be leaning towards being a consumer product!
Plus, Microsoft do their damnedest to prevent VNC working out of the box, meaning you often have to configure firewalls and/or piss about in the registry just to get it working properly. Again, not very "it just works", is it?
The annoying thing is that the we know functionality is *there* (and can be switched on via a presumably EULA-busting hack), it's just been deliberately hobbled, supposedly to protect what, enterprise adoption?
"Plus, Microsoft do their damnedest to prevent VNC working out of the box, meaning you often have to configure firewalls and/or piss about in the registry just to get it working properly. Again, not very "it just works", is it?"
Have you ever used VNC? I've never one time had to muck with the registry to get it working. As for firewalls, you really need to get the sand out of your vagina.
Vista Home Premium (specifically UAC and the restrictions on the 'fake' administrator accounts) made it very hard to set up VNC, particularly on a bloody TV in the living room (which was my original point!).
I admit I've not used it on 7, having switched to Win 7 Pro which has RDP enabled out of the box.
My vagina has been sand-free for 8 years now, thanks :)
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Well, Assuming I got my VNC experience right, you needed to be already logged in to have the VNC server work. You can't switch on the PC while leaving it headless and expect VNC to relay the login screen to you like RDP does (at least, theoretically not without major registry shuffling). On a Linux box, it's possible (and rather easy) to configure a VNC server to act as a Reversed X server, have (X/K/GDM) run over it and thus have the equivalent of multiple X terminals running.
That said, I applaud the idea of having less versions of Windows. I just hope that it's pricing would be reasonable and that the home versions will not be as crippled as Windows XP Home was. Seriously, no SMP (and thus no multi-core CPU) support? What the hell Microsoft?!?
Switching of Language (I really hope this will work without rebooting or playing with the registry.)
ISO/VHD Mount - Definately good.
VPN Client ( Hope it works with Cisco)
There is also a lot of guff in that list, in reality there is not that many new options for the end user.
I won't mention the bad as it is all relative to the user and platform ( Tiles - hint hint)
Mail, Calendar etc are now called Apps, lol.
I was just about to ask the same question. I guess all the Microsoft shills telling us constantly that -
'the iPad is a toy and a consumption device, but these fabled Windows 8 tablets will be the real deal for people who want to do work' - Are right.
No media player is an epic fail for me. I doubt it'll be on there under a different name as why would they want to create a second media player under a different name? It'd make more sense to metro up their current media player offering.
At the end of the day a tablet has no physical keyboard so is far from ideal for majority of business solutions in my eyes and the companies that are rolling them out seem to be doing it because it's the latest fad or they have niche uses which require little text input.
Windows 8 on ARM was Microsofts chance to really fight back against the iPad and build their ecosystem for people to listen to music / watch videos / play games, but if there's not going to be a media player then any ground they are gaining on the iPad is lost. I'm sure someone will manage to code one for Windows RT though can't imagine it'll be too difficult for some of the bright sparks out there, but it's a basic requirement of any system. This has Windows XP Netbook Edition all over it
EVERYONE uses Silverlight or Flash nowadays to watch video, streaming it from your favourite service provider!!!!! NO-body would keep their own media and want to sort it, list it, or anything themselves!!!!! I mean, if you did that how would you know what ELSE you could watch, or what you MIGHT LIKE!!! HOW CAN YOU CONSIDER NOT LOOKING FOR THE MOVIE YOU BOUGHT BY STARING AT AN OVER-FILLED SCREEN OF OVERSIZED COVER-ART ICONS INSTEAD OF A SIMPLE ALPHABETICAL LIST!??!!??
(seriously, if anyone didn't guess this was a sarcastic comment before I reached the all-caps bit, then you really need to stop taking life too seriously)
WMPlayer is not needed as it was, anymore. The new method (as seen on Windows Phone 7.5 and Xbox 360) builds the media functions into all apps so media isn't limited to a specific app. I have played with Win8 previews for a large government sector with it's use of media functions. The results have shown greater productivity and end user feedback has been great. The UI is not actually an issue because it's ability to display information without opening an app saves time, which turns into saving money...companies love saving money!!!
I'm excited about the changes MS are making. And that's coming from a Mac user (and MS, linux....)
"I have played with Win8 previews for a large government sector with it's use of media functions. The results have shown greater productivity and end user feedback has been great."
No wonder the Government is in the mess it's in if it requires 'media functions' to show greater productivity from users.......
As others have said, Windows 8 is actually very good once you get behind that awful Metro interface.
Metro might be OK on tablets but why foist it on to the desktop versions? I hope they see sense and at least give us the ability to turn it off.
But then MS do seem to be losing the plot a bit....
We all know that under the hood, Windows 8 strides to be ace. But the GUI team have stuffed up on this one. A good opportunity for a reverse engineer/hacker to get underneath Metro and strip it out for anyone insane enough to want to upgrade. They would certainly make a name for themselves.
Windows 8 will do nothing to pull the ever growing Mac OS X users and certainly push desktop Windows users to the brink of panic when they see Metro.
Well, if, as so many here seem to be praying, Metro pushes Windows users towards OSX, then this may be a masterstroke on Microsoft's part. As the market share rises, so the virus count will rise and "it just works"/"macs are secure" will become widely recognized as the marketing lies that they always were.
Okay, maybe not a masterstroke. But it will at least be satisfying to see fanbois become a bit less smug.
"A good opportunity for a reverse engineer/hacker to get underneath Metro and strip it out for
anyone insane enough to want to upgrade. They would certainly make a name for themselves."
There's already a version that doesn't run Metro - it's called Windows 7.
Windows 8 will already run the old software - you can fire up the Desktop and totally ignore all the Metro functionality, but eventually there's going to be a new application or software tools that takes advantage of Metro that you want to use, so why would you rip out metro now when you can just ignore it?
If you don't use it, it won't get in your way!
...no purchase here or on any of our 100+ machines. Told you so, you loudmouthed, bald, fat f@rt, you should've talked to your little retarded princess Sinofsky last year...
...so now you'll have a much bigger FAIL on your hand than Vista was - though the upside is that most likely it will finally trigger your long-overdue removal, along with your ilks, after the shareholder riot that will follow your lame, disappointing results next year; time to pick a hobby, porky face.
"Told you so, you loudmouthed, bald, fat f@rt, you should've talked to your little retarded princess Sinofsky last year"
Try this out: Before you say something on the Internet, think if you would say it to someone's face. I mean really say it, not just think that you'd like to imagine yourself saying it. Maybe then you would come across as a nicer person and not some sort of angry, angry keyboard warrior.
Just a thought.
Oh trust me, I WOULD. Not as a conversation starter but if he would ask me I would repeat it, face-to-face, no problem here - and for all we know he's pretty thick-skinned too so it shouldn't be a problem on the other side either.
BTW you misunderstood something: I have zero intention to to come across as a nicer person when it comes to these pigheaded stupid idiots who lead Microsoft for a decade now. Absolutely not.
Oh and as an every day user of their stuff yes, I AM angry at them, lousy fat *&^%, yes.
Hope it clears up any remaining lingering questions.
Sorry...but no.....in this case he was just absolutely f-king hilarious.
You don't have to agree with his anger, or his comment, or even how he expresses himself - but if you respond with trying to tell people how they should behave you're just asking for trouble.
I'm actually impressed with his response to you. It shows that, despite whatever passions he may have, he clearly thinks about what he's writing. Not all abuse or heavily worded insults on the internet are actually just trolling 'keyboard warrior' statements. People actually feel things too.
Frankly I'm amazed at this outbreak of common sense by Microsoft, I was bracing myself for at least 15 SKUs, including the Windows 8 for Poor People that comes without mouse and keyboard support (but can be purchased as DLC if you can get to the app store).
The original article also notes there will be a 4th SKU, Win8 Enterprise, but they only mention it in passing. What do enterprise customers get that you can't find in Win8 Pro?
Once again, MS is providing many versions which will confuse the consumer and create more overhead/headache.
Remember a few years ago when MS announced five different versions of their impending OS release? Steve Jobs, shortly afterward, was delivering a keynote where he explained that Apple had a basic version: OS X. They had a consumer version: OS X. They had a Professional version: OS X. They had ... It was one of those moments where even Apple's critics said "Boy, this is one place where Apple gets it."
So MS reduced, and now they're expanding again. Really?
RT: n 1) A brief chirping sound made when a slow-moving, rubber-tyred, vehicle suddenly stops moving to to abrupt failure of its propulsion system.
2) An expression uttered by the user of a computing device when the operating system suddenly halts in a manner similar to the usage in 1).
v. 1) The process of halting an operating system suddenly and abruptly due to an unrecoverable fault. See also: BSOD.
Can I ask what I program this in?
According to the announcement, the new developer platform is HTML5 + Javascript to bring a new buzzword-buzzword-buzzword to my Windows 8 applications
According to MSDN I use MSFT's latest attempt at their own version of C++ together with a bunch of COM components to program Metro. Oh joy - I really do miss 1991
WPF, their last new paradigm in modern GUI buzzword apparently doesn't run on Metro but will run in Desktop legacy mode. I think Silverlight will run as a browser plugin.
And who knows which of these also work on their smartphones - probably MFC and VBA ?
The start UI in Winodws 8 is disgustingly ugly, mindlessly impractical and completely un-usable in a desktop environment.
Microsoft has become decidedly lazy, instead of making separate OS's, one for mobile and one for Desktop, instead they've just made one for mobile and in their mindless stupidity they think the mobile version will be useful in an ordinary desktop environment - who's the clown company contracting to Microsoft, I should become a clown.
Maybe they have unwittingly hired a bunch of mac loving programmer - way to get back at MS Apple!
Also the 8 OS is help bent on stealing your personel information and wants you directed and permanently connected to one place online - the Microsoft apps store.
Its like Facebook with it's spyware and targeted advertising but at OS level, nothing is safe.
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