Windows 8 - More Thoughts

Apart from my previous blog entry on the subject, the forums have been running hot with comments about Windows 8.

Two Distinct Camps

Comments are split between the “This is a great step forward” and “This is an unusable User Interface”.

Both are wrong.

The Winning OS will cater for both Touch Screen and Keyboard users

And that OS will be Windows 8.  Unless Microsoft are unbelievably stupid!

Windows 8 is tweaked Windows 7 with a Touch Screen overlay. From the enthusiastic comments by iPhone and iPad users, it seems to have hit a nail in the Touch Screen department. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/a-review-of-the-windows-8-beta/#more-5483

The problem is with the keyboard/mouse brigade.  The Windows 8 currently on show does not fare well for this group. There are too many things missing, such as all clickable items.

But this is to be expected if one looks at the test audience, the phone / tablet brigade. In my humble opinion, this release if firmly pointed to Microsoft’s main opponents in this arena – Apple and Google and this release is a strategic way of testing the water, without having to fix anything in stone.

In the keyboard / mouse arena Windows is already the de facto standard, so, obviously Microsoft has a pretty good idea of what’s needed.  Windows 7 is a very good solution.

Where to Now?

I predict that the ‘beta’ release of Windows 8 will allow an easy choice between Metro and Point & Click, probably at the App level. 

I would expect that one will be able to choose the required experience via a preference setting for each app.

Further, as much as one can currently have multiple screens, one could easily have multiple methods for input.

Why not use a Touch device as well as a keyboard on a desktop PC?