Microsoft"s launch of Windows 8 in 2012 introduced the PC world to its Modern user interface, made mostly for touchscreen display interactions. Many PC users, however, still interact with Windows 8 primarily with the traditional desktop UI. You might think that Microsoft would like to do away with the desktop at some point, but a company executive is quoted as saying that might never happen.
A TechCrunch article quotes Microsoft Chief Evangelist Steven Guggenheimer saying, at least at first, "Over time, it’s likely to go away." However, the article mentions that Guggenheimer quickly changed that statement, saying he was not sure if the desktop UI will "ever go away completely."
Certainly applications such as Excel spreadsheets or advanced 3D modeling programs will still need to be controlled mostly by the mouse-keyboard combination on a desktop interface for a long time to come. Guggenheirmer states that at the moment there"s "this weird balance between [the desktop] ending up being less critical over time, but it probably never goes away completely. Or if it does, it’s hard to predict when."
The interview was conducted last week during the Imagine Cup 2013 finals. On that subject, Guggenheirmer said that while some aspect of the student technology competition "are phenomenal," he added that "some aspects don’t scale as well as we’d like." He hints that he would like to see more of the students who enter the contest turn their creations into full start up companies, rather than just the finalists.
Source: TechCrunch | Image via Stardock