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Although it was only a canned demo, and Windows 8 won't ship until next year at the earliest, it showed that Microsoft is doing some fresh thinking about interface design.
But unless you follow the company closely, you might not realize that Windows 8 descends from a long line of other Microsoft ideas.
A lot of these were experimental products. Some never made it to market. None became popular enough to challenge the old "icons on a desktop" model that's been around since the early 1990s, and has spread from the Mac and Windows to the mobile world.
But they are all a part of Microsoft's history -- and intellectual property -- and they all contributed to the thinking behind Windows 8.
Join us as we take a look back at the Windows 8 family tree.
That's a great pedigree.
Nobody cares about MSFT anymore. They are like GM during the 80's. A company focused on market share, not product. We know how that turned out.
do you mean billions in dividends, billions in the bank, and continued growth?
METRO UI, Zune's UI and WP7s GUI, just got even better, Lync with Skype with WP7 will be formidable - and an iPhone and RIM killer rolled into one. The Sanyo Infobar 3 (bing or google iida.jp) is straight out of the METRO UI school or design.
All Apple needs to do now to beat Google, MS, Samsung and HTC is to invent their own social network. That way the Apple People can stop bothering the rest of the Earthlings with their insufferable hubris about how paying $2000 for 18 month old Intel processors in a shiny "unibody" box makes them somehow superior to the rest of mankind.
Umm... RIM (or BlackBerry) is already dead, at least in the consumer market.
This is one of those cases where Steve was right: keyboards made sense up until the time when computing got cheap enough to make a table the right answer for most consumers.
The problem for MS is that every other industry has seen how MS treats its corporate "allies" and actively looks for alternatives and that makes it hard to break out of the traditional computing environment. WinMob7 isn't half bad but nobody wants to be in MS's thrall anymore. With Android a viable alternative they're more willing to tie their future to Google than MS. It's a case of the stranger you don't know is better than the devil you do.
This is like saying that a rogues gallery of crap design is good for new products.
M$H!T is still M$H!T.
Always was and always will be.
The bloated, rotting dungheap is just more obviously bloated and rotting.
You all enjoy your Linux, Macs, Androids and ios... I have no problem with any of the above, but don't be surprised when MSFT gains in the areas they're currently weak in and continues dominating where they have for a long time. Most intelligent and unbiased people see changes in Microsoft and how they starting to approach the consumer market and can see the good in that for all consumers. Those same people also know those claims of 20 years of failed design are just as ignorant as they are untrue. It's funny that some of the products, ie Zune, you people point out as failures in design, we're some of MSFT's best consumer designed products. You see, a product not selling well doesn't necessarily mean the design was a bad one, that's the way it works out sometimes. If not getting a strong hold on the market = bad design than Apple, Linux, Opera, etc. wouldn't exist right now.
Enjoy your hating. I enjoy seeing all the products, from all the companies and the open source community that I now have to choose from. Hating or loving one over the other won't make any of them better/worse, it will simply give all of us more options. Whichever products I do pick to use, you can bet that I won't feel superior/inferior and I won't find it necessary to hate everything that I don't use or everyone who chooses differently. To each their own. All that being said, don't be surprised to see MSFT staying a major player for a long time to come, in many avenues. You don't have to like or hate them to have common sense.
-Max
Chrome Browser
Android Phone
Gmail
Windows 7
MS Office
i'll dump Windows and Office if o have to. i already have one foot out the door.
For the, "If this, if that, (insert scenario)" people, enjoy your new OS and whatever other new software you may choose to use. However, don't be surprised when those metro ui interface imitations start to land on those products too. Did you really think that static grid-icons on a screen was going to last forever? I think 20+ years is enough, it's time for new innovation in design and don't be surprised when the copycats jump on board. That's the way the industry works. One group comes up with a new design or concept and the others tend to follow suit and you don't have to be a market leader to get that following. Just ask the Opera/Chrome developers. That's just one of many, many examples that could be pointed out. The metro ui is a very suitable design for the touch screen world that we're migrating to. Sure, there will be changes and enhancements as time goes on and everyone will put their own spin on it, but I'd get used to similar offerings from MSFT's competitors if I were you.
Also, for those who like to comment, but seem to have little info about what's expected in things like Windows 8, let me fill you in a bit. The info. out right now is that Windows 8 will let you choose to use the new ui or to use the more, "Windows past" icon ui. I think anyone with some modicum of common sense can see how that would be a wise move from MSFT. For instance: The metro ui may not appeal to the corporate world as much as the consumer world. Plus, it give long-time Window's users the option to stick with what they know, but still gain the newest features and security measures that new OS's tend to bring. So, if your going to use another product, but all means, have fun with it, but don't try to justify it to yourself with reasons that are unlikely to exist. Just say you want to move on and anyone else can respect that, but when you seem to have little knowledge of what your options will be, it just makes you look like the typical sheep some people can be.
Personally, I love the new direction MSFT is going in and for the first time in years, they seem to be thinking more and more consumer friendly. That's not an easy task for a company who has to appeal to business the way MSFT does and I commend the effort. Believe me, or don't, but Apple, Google and any other group would suffer the same balancing act if they dominated the corporate world the way Microsoft does. Corporate and consumers are very different beasts and it's not always easy to appeal to both, yet Microsoft has kept a large following in both sectors and anyone who doesn't see the skill it takes to do that, has a lot to learn my friends.
1) The reason that any (happened to be Apple) mobile application was wildly successful was not the design, but the wide availability of high-speed wireless connectivity. Had that existed in 1991 when the Microsoft Tablet was introduced, the tablet would probably have started the handheld revolution (although others would have jumped on quickly - like Apple did once high-speed wireless connectivity became widespread).
2) Microsoft does not seem to understand the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid). Instead of a long explanation, go to google.com (picture, text box, button), or your iPhone (square piece of glass, button, icons). Microsoft tried to squeeze a full-size version of Windows into a 3x4 inch square. Even Windows phone 7 has excessive graphics and text. Hopefully Windows 8 will be nicknamed Windows KISS.
3) New markets need an innovator, not a maintainer. In 1985, Microsoft incorporated what IBM and Xerox already had to create Windows; IBM and Xerox seemed to be in maintenance mode as opposed to innovation mode and Microsoft took advantage of that. And now, the innovative torch is handed to a new generation with Apple capitalizing on Microsoft's iterations at mobile application design - and market timing (availability of high-speed wireless) - to become the innovator.
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