Windows 8 is a Microsoft product that has undergone a little bit more than a makeover. A company that has been made famous for a slavish devotion to legacy software and hardware has completely turned around and headed straight for the new. That is not to say that there isn’t legacy support included in Win8, but considering that addons like Flash are not supported in the Metro interface you can tell than Microsoft made some different decisions as to how they want to interact with legacy apps, something Flash is quickly becoming as you can read about at The Tech Report.
The thing is that you feel like you are missing out on something if you don’t have a touchscreen interface. The Metro interface feels like a cell phone interface not a PC interface, which it seems is exactly what Microsoft wanted. There is no doubt this was designed for tablets first and PCs second, though with very little time to play with a pre-beta build it could be that there is more included for the PC user than it first seems. However with users already using a registry entry to disable the Metro interface altogether, the new interface is going to be a hard sell to those who use Win7 let alone the WinXP hold outs.
Will it be so much better an interface on the tablet than the current choices however? The OS its self will support multi-touch and multitasking better than current competitors products but they will be running on the same hardware and one very good reason that most tablet or even cellphone OSes don’t preform very well when multitasking. Once dual core chips become more common in the ultramobile devices it will make more sense, but is Microsoft really changing so much that it is going to release an OS before the hardware is capable of fully utilizing it? That would be a big turnaround for a company that didn’t want to drop support for any legacy applications or hardware, no matter how ancient.
"Microsoft let out an interesting bit of news early this morning: Internet Explorer 10 won’t support plug-ins in its Metro incarnation. That means no Flash support. Apparently, the only way to get Flash to run will be to toggle over to Windows 8’s classic "desktop" mode and use IE10 in there. Justifying the move, Microsoft says not supporting plug-ins in the Metro version of IE10 "improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers." That all sounds awfully familiar…"
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Windows 8 Won’t Support Plug-Ins; the End of Flash? @ Slashdot
- Microsoft BUILD: Windows 8, A Pre-Beta Preview @ AnandTech
- Windows Server 8: built for the cloud, built for virtualization @ Ars Technica
- Globalfoundries secures 28nm orders from over 30 clients @ DigiTimes
- Intel Aims For Open-Source OpenGL 3.0 Driver By Year’s End @ Phoronix
- Google purchases Big Blue patents to defend Android @ Ars Technica
- SATA to move to PCI Express @ SemiAccurate
- Italian Hacker Publishes 0day SCADA Hacks @ Slashdot
- Thunderbolt is coming to PCs next year @ The Inquirer
- Ubuntu 11.10 Home Encryption Performance @ Phoronix
- IDF 2011: Fundamental Tranformations @ X-bit Labs
- Intel Ivy Bridge: Microarchitecture Details from IDF 2011 @ X-bit Labs
- IDF 2011: ASUS UX21 13-inch Ultrabook Hands-On Preview @ Legit Reviews
- Fujifilm FinePix F550 EXR Review @ TechReviewSource
- Q&A: Contributing To Open-Source Projects @ Phoronix
- Asus WL-330N3G 6 in 1 Wireless-N Router @ kitguru
- Win 4 Kingston 16GB microSDHC @ t-break
- Win 4 Kingston 16GB DataTraveler Ultimate 3 drives @ t-break
you can also download the
you can also download the developers version and give it a try at dev.windows.com they let you choose between the x86 and the x64
So my question is, where does
So my question is, where does this leave 7? I am still running XP on my PC and have been holding out building a new one until I see the results of actual benchmarks for AMD’s Bulldozer. I planned on using 7 so if someone who can explain it I would be appreciative.
My take on it so far is that
My take on it so far is that Win7 is for people who want a full computer. Win8 is for people who want a tablet … even if that tablet is actually a full system without a touchscreen.
I’m in the process of
I’m in the process of installing it on my convertible tablet right now, maybe I’ll like the Metro stuff better. Right now that I don’t care for it, it’s less easy to use with a mouse and it is kind of jarring to go from desktop with windows to a full screen cell phone madness interface 😛