Windows 8 news coverage here

By Steven P.
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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Grand Master

BajiRav

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that mini tile idea is crap!...

why do u need to show what the startscreen looks like?

also.

u have it in charms. why do u need it anywhere else? pointless.

it feels similar to the thumbnail you get in DP when cursor is near left edge (where it shows preview of prev/next app)

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Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

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I don't expect many desktop side UI changes at this point tbh. I think the bigger molding of metro and the "desktop" will happen in Win9 after more people get use to the new UI/start screen.

I really believe that what we think of as the desktop is just going to turn into a part of the UI where you can manage/work with lots of apps together like now of course but even future WinRT apps not just older Win32 apps like we're getting in Win8. I don't expect a split between the two sections come Win9.

I also expect the next thing to go will be the systray in favor of a new notification area in the UI that will slide into view from the side or the bottom etc. Then the last part will be the taskbar itself.

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Grand Master

Zain Adeel

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brilliantly written post! :)

do read it. Very informative.

Im thinking that Steven talked alot about new devices coming from AMD and Intel. Im very excited. I want a x86 tablet and if the AMD low power PCs can give me the performance, battery life, slim and light design, they can have my money! :)

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Grand Master

PGHammer

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brilliantly written post! :)

do read it. Very informative.

Im thinking that Steven talked alot about new devices coming from AMD and Intel. Im very excited. I want a x86 tablet and if the AMD low power PCs can give me the performance, battery life, slim and light design, they can have my money! :)

And it also clears up some misperceptions (even mine) on why the multi-API support on Windows 8 outside of ARM exists.

I have called Immersive on x86/x64 a *superset* UI; apparently, I was severely underestimating the case.

Windows 8 on x86/64 is a *superset OS* - basically WOA-plus.

The blog post (and the video) point out that WinRT is, by design, CPU-neutral (which Win32 isn't). Writing to the WinRT API means that as long as the API support is there, the application will work. However, WinRT, with it being primarily designed for lightweight-power-miserly architectures (such as Ultrabooks and ARM) means that it isn't suitable for the heavier applications (such as Outlook or even Photoshop or Acrobat Professional). With WinRT, the CPU isn't relevant.

However, some heavier-duty productivity applications, existing games, existing applications, are simply unsuitable for WinRT. (Outlook. Acrobat Professional. The full version of Photoshop. MMORPGs - even the F2P sort. Etc.) Therefore, Win32 still has a place. That's where everything from higher-end tablets and slates (such as SAMSUNG's existing SERIES 7) to traditional desktops, notebooks, etc. and the Win32 API come in. There are times that a ball-peen hammer simply won't do.

However, here's where the big change from previous versions of niche-targeted Windows (WinMo and TPC Edition in particular) comes in - the learning curve goes away - completely. You still have the jackhammer - or even the sledgehammer - in your arsenal.

Yes - it's not what we're used to. (It's also not what Apple - or even Google - wants.)

Whoever would have thought that "Think different." (the old Apple slogan) could ever apply to Microsoft?

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George P Global Moderator

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I wonder why the jump from 8225 to 8250? Maybe it's because they'll add the new apps into it or maybe there's something more for us?

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Zain Adeel

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I wonder why the jump from 8225 to 8250? Maybe it's because they'll add the new apps into it or maybe there's something more for us?

with their process so transparent. I think they should add a surprise or two.

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BetaAddict

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Everyone of these screenshots over the last couple of pages give me orgasms.

So excited for Gmail and calendar integration.

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PGHammer

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Everyone of these screenshots over the last couple of pages give me orgasms.

So excited for Gmail and calendar integration.

The Google Calendar integration is nice. The Gmail support isn't surprising in the least (mainly because Outlook has supported Gmail since it began, and added IMAP4 auto-configuration of Gmail accounts across all of Outlook two years back). I'm hoping that I can actually use Google Calendar with Outlook in Windows 8 (either the Consumer Preview or the finished product) without requiring an upgraded version of Office.

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Guest fornaks86

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Interesting trivia courtesy of Long...

Photo EXIF evidence points to Windows on ARM before iPad release

Turns out Microsoft has been working on Windows on ARM for a while, quite a while in fact.

In Steven Sinofsky?s thesis of Windows on ARM (generically dubbed WOA) published on the Building Windows 8 blog today, two photographs of an early development build of Windows running on prototype ARM hardware dates the effort to as far back as 22 January 2010, almost a week before iPad?s announcement on the 27th.

Although Microsoft waited almost a year later to reveal WOA for the first time in public at a CES 2011 press conference, it?s now clear Microsoft too had future bets on an ARM-based ecosystem even before the iPad began selling and ARM took the spotlight for tablet devices.

As one might gather from Steven?s insight into the ARM development process, it became a lot more complicated to optimize the Windows experience on ARM than just porting all the code from one architecture than another. I think the dated photographs also reaffirm just how big of an investment this has been already with two years of development already in the bag.

Although no one can deny the influence the iPad has had and continues to have on Windows, Windows 8 is looking to level the playing field on ARM hardware with a vengeance. It?s safe to say WOA is not a knee-jerk reaction to the iPad, but a strategic move planned much earlier. But of course like most things Microsoft, with a longer lead time to market.

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Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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The NT kernel has been portable since the times of NT 3.x in the early 1990s. NT 3.51 and NT 4.0 ran on four different CPU architectures: x86, MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC.

I'm pretty sure MS had an ARM build of NT running in their labs for years, just like Apple had x86 builds of all versions of Mac OS X running in their labs before the switch.

Long Zheng's findings are nice, but not earth shattering.

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Guest fornaks86

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The NT kernel has been portable since the times of NT 3.x in the early 1990s. NT 3.51 and NT 4.0 ran on four different CPU architectures: x86, MIPS, DEC Alpha, PowerPC.

I'm pretty sure MS had an ARM build of NT running in their labs for years, just like Apple had x86 builds of all versions of Mac OS X running in their labs before the switch.

Long Zheng's findings are nice, but not earth shattering.

Well, I did say it's just trivia :)

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