Windows 8: First Impressions

Since before Windows 7 was released the rumour mill was already rife with speculation on Windows 8 and at this years All Things Digital D9 conference Microsoft have now taken the covers off and started whetting our appetites with solid details and releasing the first in a series of videos called Building “Windows 8”

It doesn’t take a genius to instantly recognise that Windows 8 has taken some cues from its little brother Windows Phone 7, big colourful ‘live tiles’ and a very Metro looking interface make you wonder if Microsoft have gone too far. Are they going to alienate the core business and education markets by ‘dumbing down’ the OS in an effort to compete with a more and more tablet and touch centric marketplace.

Windows 8 & Windows Phone 7 – Similar much?

I’ll admit that I am big fan of Windows Phone 7 and currently run with a HTC Mozart. While its not without its shortcomings, for a version 1 OS its very impressive – but we’re not talking about a foray into a Phone market dominated by iOS and Android, this is Windows, this is PC’s, this is a world dominated by Microsoft.

Details are still somewhat scarce, and while the video below demonstrates some of the capabilities such as new HTML 5 powered apps, app management and multitasking it also leaves so many more questions unanswered – though now the secret is out I’m sure these will now begin to trickle faster and faster.
Personally I think this is a very positive move for Microsoft. Microsoft is terrific at innovation and often has multiple developer teams working across different projects which then occasionally overlap and the end result has been market confusion and a lack of synergy.

With Windows 8 it is starting to feel like they are getting the band playing to the beat of the same drum, they’ve taken the ‘best of’ collections and started compiling it into one cohesive playlist, a bit of Windows Phone, and some Zune and some Media Centre, and some of our Live apps and even a touch of XBox 360 evident on the start screen with the current user profile showing in the top right corner.

Microsoft does need to make things bigger to suit both small and large screens alike, and more touch friendly to suit tablets however I was concerned that Windows was turning into a ‘feature’ OS instead of a ‘smart’ OS, was it really trying to reduce itself down the the Chrome OS level? That fear was relieved in the video below when they show a very Windows 7 looking interface running standard Office apps, almost as if Windows 7 is just an App within Windows 8 – and I’m OK with that.

Windows is dead! Long live Windows!

I’m now a citizen of the cloud, I live in Hotmail and Facebook and Twitter so if Windows 8 simplifies my access to those things, yee haw! And for when I’m working and want my ‘traditional’ apps, knowing they are still accessible and can split screen with my new HTML5 life. I say bring it!

It does beg the question though…should it really still be called Windows?

Windows as a title has kind of made sense for the last 2 decades, because all your programs ran in…windows. Now that the OS is tile centric and revolves around full screen web apps and an overall interface that seems driven by the Metro design guidelines…is it any surprise that they are calling "Windows 8” the codename? Will Microsoft break from the old and start a new franchise for a new era? Can Microsoft break from calling their core platform Windows even if they want to? They certainly didn’t think so for their mobile phone OS.

What are your thoughts on the new OS? I’m pretty psyched and would happily beta test this baby if I could score a copy. Let us know your feelings in the comments!

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