Microsoft showed off a pre-beta build of Windows 8 at its
BUILD conference in last September. We got our hands on a copy and took
it for a spin in the lab. Is the company's effort to unify PCs, phones,
tablets, and its gaming console actually coherent?
Windows 8 was formally unveiled at Computex 2011. However, it
wasn’t until more recently that Microsoft released a build to the
public.
Before you dismiss this version of Windows, there’s more to
Microsoft's announcement than just an obligatory operating system
upgrade. The successor to Windows 7 carries with it the company's hope
of attracting more developers for tablets and smartphones. That’s
clearly the driving force behind a new interface better suited to
touchscreen input.
Even if you don’t own a touch-enabled device,
you should expect a
completely unique experience. Microsoft is trying to unify everything
under one roof, which is why the splash screen may seem familiar; it’s
basically an updated rendition of Windows Phone 7.
While WP7 smartphones continue to struggle in the midst of iOS and
Android, Microsoft isn’t trying to find an alternative use for its
mobile operating system. Quite the opposite, in fact. The company is
chasing after the holy grail of synergy.
Imagine a world where your desktop, smartphone, and tablet are
continuously synched. Visit a webpage on your desktop. Bam. That page is
stored in your smartphone’s history. Need to run Microsoft Office on
your tablet? Not a problem now that Microsoft is adding ARM support. But
that’s just the beginning. Think about also unifying the user interface
common to all of those devices, too.
Digging deeper, Windows 8 isn’t a complete overhaul. Much of it is
familiar in comparison to Windows 7. That’s why some will call this
Windows 7 Plus. At the same time, this represents the most dramatic UI
change since the transition from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. That’s a
good enough excuse for Microsoft to dub its forthcoming operating system
Windows 8.
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