Windows 8 will be one of Microsoft’s biggest operating system upgrades in a long time. The successor to the sales success Windows 7 will for the first time be released for two different processor platforms, ARM and x86, while we see a larger focus on mobile units. Microsoft has presented the new touch interface that really makes us look forward to next year.
Windows 8 will focus a lot on the market for tablets and ultramobiles. We have already concluded that through its venture to support ARM. Besides tablets requiring a more touch friendly interface Microsoft believes that we will find more touch screen with our desktop computers, which really shows in Windows 8.
Windows 8 will build on Windows 7 and this means that the classic desktop and explorer is still there, but the big news is the graphic interface on top of everything
Microsoft got a taste for blood during the development of the smartphone operating system Windows Phone 7 and will continue down the same path. The touch interface of Windows 8 is built up by tiles, where each tiles hs its own application showing certain information and can then be clicked on to bring up the full application. Like a big interactive icon so to say.
Now that it is about to take the step on to the PC market and tablets where we have bigger screens and more pixels to play with Microsoft has revised the handling of several applications, to make them more convenient. The apps will according to Microsoft be written in HTML5 and JavaScript, where it will open up to third-party developers to broaden the functionality of the new OS.
In a tablet it will be possible to use swiping motions at the edges to swtich between different active apps, while you can attach multiple apps next to each other and alternate their sizes.
The background holds the classic Windows Windows desktop, but promises that will be able to access everything in the operating system through the new touch interface.
In the first of many demonstration videos the company has published we get a preview of the new interface, which gives us hope about the future for ultramobiles. Windows 8 will launch in 2012, but no exact date as of today.
