"I use Windows 8 every day, and I???m still at a loss as to why I???m being forced to use a touch-enabled UI on hardware that I can???t control by touch."
I'm curious, since I actually do use the Windows 8 Developer Preview everyday, what makes the UI touch-enabled to you? Is it because you have tiles? Because since all the applications today are not Metro Apps, if you where actually using Windows 8, you would probably spend most of your day AT THE DESKTOP! I see the Windows 8 Start screen as much as I use my start menu, hardly.
Stop spreading the FUD or show some of these real life issues you're having.
Following yesterday’s unexpected release of the OS X 10.8 developer preview (code-named ’Mountain Lion’) we’re now in a position to see the different approaches being taken by Apple and Microsoft in how they are developing their next-generation operating systems. And one thing is clear: Apple is benefiting from having a mature mobile platform.
Let’s take a look at the two approaches and see how they differ.
Microsoft’s approach to Windows 8
Let’s face it. Windows hasn’t changed that much since the release of Windows 95 nearly 17 years ago. Back in 1995 Microsoft seriously revamped the user desktop and added a set of user interface elements that have persisted to this day, many of which have become iconic. Elements such as the Start Button (or orb), the Start Menu, and a desktop on which users can store files and folders all make up what people think of as ‘Windows.’
While Microsoft has tweaked and refined this design with subsequent releases, the user interface paradigm largely remains unchanged in nearly two decades, right up to the release of Windows 7.
Click here to view the Windows 8 installation walk-through gallery
But with Windows 8 things are changing, and they’re changing in a big way. Classic elements such as the Start Button are gone, and the Start Menu and desktop have been unceremoniously shoved into the background by the newer ‘Metro UI’ Start Screen.
The catalyst for all this change wasn’t users demanding change, but instead a desire on the part of Microsoft to make the Windows operating system capable of being driven by a fingers as well as a cursor on touch-enabled devices that aren’t encumbered by a keyboard and mouse. Microsoft has tried, and failed, for over a decade to put Windows onto tablets, and it’s now come to the conclusion that for Windows tablets to succeed, Windows has to be what changes.
For the first time in the history of Windows, Microsoft is looking beyond the PC era and into a post-PC world where out gadgets are small, mobile and both highly personal and highly personalized, and to fit in with this future it is making sweeping changes to Windows.
While there’s no doubt that the visual design of Windows 8 has been influenced by Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform (this is where the Metro UI was born), what’s interesting is how rather than taking the mobile OS to touch-enabled devices such as tablets, Microsoft is instead trying to squeeze the entire desktop OS onto mobile devices while still having to keep it usable on old-style hardware (the PC). It’s a delicate balancing act that’s going to be hard to get right.
While I quite like what I’ve seen so far of Windows 8, I’m still not convinced that Microsoft has managed to effectively balance the old (keyboard and mouse) with the new (touch) and I still fear that what we’re going to end up with is a hybrid operating system that will be awkward to use on all devices because too many compromises have been made along the way.
There’s one question that Microsoft still hasn’t answered with respect to Windows 8, and I think it’s a key question. What problem does the Metro UI touch-interface solve on a desktop system that isn’t touch enabled? I use Windows 8 every day, and I’m still at a loss as to why I’m being forced to use a touch-enabled UI on hardware that I can’t control by touch.
