Windows 8.

[Mrbloodworth]

Building "Windows 8" - Video #1

Here are a few aspects of the new interface we showed today:
•   

Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
•   

Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
•   

Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
•   

Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
•   

Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
•   

Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

Link to announcement page.

[01101010]

Building "Windows 8" - Video #1

Here are a few aspects of the new interface we showed today:
•   

Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
•   

Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
•   

Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
•   

Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
•   

Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
•   

Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

Link to announcement page.

Saw this on WIRED the other day. Think the main point of that article is this is the microsoft OS that is preparing for a future without keyboards. On that note...

I really am at odds with the whole "tiles" thing. I can't explain it... it's the same feeling I get when I walk into a McD's (which has been one time in the past 4 months) and notice there are no words left on the menu. meh. I'm good with WIN7.

[Mrbloodworth]

Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel yet.

[MahrinSkel]

"You got your phone in my operating system!"

Seriously, it looks like Windows Phone 7 adapted for a bigger screen.  Except what's intuitive and natural with a little touch screen I hold in one hand while manipulating with the other is likely to be a huge PITA when I'm using a mouse.

--Dave

[Paelos]

Dear Microsoft,

Touchscreens don't go on everything.

Thanks,
Everyone with a brain

[KallDrexx]

Windows 8 is usable without a touchscreen, or at least according to PR (and shown on All Things D, although they didn't show it using only a mouse and keyboard)

[fuser]

Probbly officially support kinetix as an interface input too.

[Sky]

Microsoft: every other OS is worth using.

Fake edit: I mean every other iteration of windows, not every non-windows OS!

[Hawkbit]

Yeah, the demo I saw was... interesting.  I'm glad the file system is still there, but the desktop is going to take some getting used to.  Of course, Microsoft's track record on brand new OS releases isn't stellar, so maybe Win9 in 2014 will be the way to go. 

[TripleDES]

I like it. Of course, Microsoft needs to implement a mode for regular applications that make them run on their own desktop in fullscreen and without taskbar. Like this, they will fit more into the page flipping thing. According to leaks, there's a Metro theme for regular applications hidden in system, anyway.

[HaemishM]

Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

Those two things alone (with Microsoft's track record and the shitty state of IE9) tells me this OS will be an abortion of security fuckups and shitty design choices that will only be worthwhile in Windows 9.

[Fordel]

That's just how Microsoft OS's work, you skip a generation!

[tgr]

My reaction to that UI: Do Not Want.

[Merusk]

Mother fuck, CAD on that platform is going to SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUck.. I can only imagine modeling being an even bigger nightmare.

[Nevermore]

That looks awful.

[Fordel]

Looks fine, if I was using a tablet or a phone.

[Ingmar]

I have to assume that the business version will be more traditional (or have the option to set it that way, at least.)

[Stormwaltz]

Care Level = 0

[Soln]

"tweetorama"?  no thx

[Lantyssa]

Might be cool on an iPad.

[Kitsune]

In the video when he's switching around screens you can briefly see a Win7-esque desktop with taskbar and programs, so I'm suspecting that you can opt out of the new UI and stick with the more traditional one.  Which is good, because that UI looks like shit for a desktop machine.  Dandy for a tablet, sure, but only a moron would predict that desktop computers are going all touchscreen.  Most peoples' arms would be about to fall off after holding them out to use the touchscreen for the first half-hour, nobody's getting through an eight hour work shift waving their hands around like they're in Minority Report.

[01101010]

In the video when he's switching around screens you can briefly see a Win7-esque desktop with taskbar and programs, so I'm suspecting that you can opt out of the new UI and stick with the more traditional one.  Which is good, because that UI looks like shit for a desktop machine.  Dandy for a tablet, sure, but only a moron would predict that desktop computers are going all touchscreen.  Most peoples' arms would be about to fall off after holding them out to use the touchscreen for the first half-hour, nobody's getting through an eight hour work shift waving their hands around like they're in Minority Report.

More like trying to keep up with the Jones's...erm, Jobs's

http://www.todaysiphone.com/2010/10/rumor-apple-testing-computers-with-ipad-like-touchscreens-jobs-reveals-he%E2%80%99s-a-trekkie/

[Surlyboi]

Gruber sez,"Why Windows 8 Is Fundamentally Flawed as a Response to the iPad".

[TripleDES]

A whole lot of bullshit. The NT system is suited just fine for the job. Why should Microsoft rip out the classic Win32 UI, if there's no goddamn reason for it?

If there was no desktop, you couldn't use classic apps. If you don't want to see the desktop, you shouldn't use classic apps. The semantics of couldn't and shouldn't are practically the same here. People get additional flexibility, and there's still someone whining about it.

[K9]

Depending on what your definition of 'desktop' is; I haven't really used my desktop in about 5-6 years. Everything comes out of the taskbar.

[tgr]

I very rarely use the start menu, let alone the desktop. In fact, I keep getting surprised by the desktop image I put there when I installed win7 the last time, because I see it so seldom I actually forget about it between each time I see it. In fact, I use the taskbar so much I've pinned all the programs I ever run to it. It's also the main reason I upgraded from XP64 to Win7.

If it's an option, fine, more code I won't ever be using because god damn that looks like an awful UI. If not, welp, I think they just kept win7 as the main windows OS for another few years to come.

[TripleDES]

Depending on what your definition of 'desktop' is

I'm going by the definition of these blogs, where the desktop is the screen space where your regular Win32 applications run in/on.

As far as not seeing the desktop wallpaper, which of you guys run all their apps fullscreen?

[tgr]

I run the main app I'm working on fullscreen on the 30", and putty/firefox "maximized"  on the 24" (i.e. they take up roughly 50% of the width each, and all of the height). If I need more screen space I let programs overlap the top of putty.

[Sky]

The Win7 taskbar is nice, but not quite to where the OSX dock has been for a while now (the applications folder alone is great on the dock). I'm about 50/50 taskbardock/desktop; but it's mostly data I keep on the desktop because it's just the easiest way to access it, even if it's junky. If someone can make that look nicer, I'm all for it. But for app launching, Steam is really leading the pack imo. Pinned apps within the pinned app, access to several menus and recently lunched apps; all with one right click of a tiny icon? That's functionality.

I also don't use full-screen apps (except games, of course), I like to have a bunch of info on the screen. I used to dislike the mac's unwillingness to use all the screen, but technology has caught up with that imo.

[Lantyssa]

I use almost everything full-screen.  At work I have two monitors, which is nice since I have to use a lot of different windows, but at home I'm almost always in one window at a time.  My monitor is only 21".  Big enough for a lovely picture, but still not quite large enough for multiple apps.

[HaemishM]

Just watched the video of that "touch" interface. I'm going to go all neckbeard and say that the sooner the touch interface dies a fiery crotch-rotting death, the happier I'll be. It's a terrible interface for the desktop. I can barely stand it on some phones and I LOATHE the iPad for its touchy touch interface.

[Engels]

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, it is pretty clear that it is vital to Microsoft's survival that they develop a touch-based OS of some sort. Currently, Windows 7 does not work on a touch screen tablet PC well at all. The 'close' button at the top of a browser, for example, is far too small. And regardless to what us neckbeardy types may think, I know for a certainty that academics (my particular realm) are dying to get all touchy touchy.

On the other hand, the UI they are presenting there looks like another layer of glommed graphics on top of a preexisting Windows 7 Aero interface. The overhead for that alone has gotta be about half a gig of ram or video ram. It may work on a 8 gig work station with a fast video card with a zippy PCI bus, but it will bring any computer short of the new i series to its knees. Imagine trying to launch something like ArcGlobe or AutoCAD while simultaneously having the added graphics overlay managing all sorts of widgets and geegaws in the background. It will bring the specter of Windows Vista back to the forefront.

[Sky]

I think for traditional computing, touch on the input devices is cool. The apple magic mouse is really cool and I wish it was fully multitouch (like pinch & zoom, for instance). But page swiping and the way it scrolls are both really nice and make it tough to go back to a traditional mouse. Page swipe alone is addictively useful.

A mouse like that with something like those programmable LCD keyboards, where you can change the keys to tiles, would make more sense for traditional computing setups, I think.

[K9]

It's going to take a lot for touch interfaces to replace keyboards for a lot of tasks; but it is something the market demands.

[Surlyboi]

All I can say is, hey, let 'em go for it. The only downside is more market share.