When i created this blog, i wanted to focus on security. In that sense, this one post is going to be off topic. We all know the future is mobile. Smart-phones, tablets, tablets doubling up as notebooks and smart-phones doubling up as tablets. These new gadgets are selling like pancakes. Apple and Google together make up a major share of this market. Microsoft was somewhat left behind. Surface is their attempt to try and dig into this booming market. Windows 8 is their software eco system for Surface. The unique selling point of Windows 8 is in its Metro UI with its tile interface. Its all fine until here except that Microsoft decided to take the same Metro UI in Windows 8 best suited for phones & tablets (in my opinion) to its notebooks and desktops. Introducing simplicity in user experience is one thing. But, changing the user experience altogether is a totally different thing. As they say, If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Apple's Mac OS X is a good example of this.Here's a pictorial representation of the transition from Cheetah that came in 2001 to Lion thats out now in 2012.
On the other hand, here's the transition from Windows 2000 to Windows 8 that'll supposedly come out in October 2012.
Can you see the radical change in Windows 8?
A live experience of this change is best demonstrated in this video of a 66 year old granny trying Windows 8.
Microsoft is trying hard to make Windows 8 easily acceptable by doing some of the following:
- Offering upgrades for as little as 15$ compared to previous cost of 100$ or more
- Reducing the SKUs to 3 which earlier would have been 6 or more.
- Support for ARM chips while earlier only x86/64 chips were supported
But, it remains to be seen whether Windows 8 will go the way of Windows Vista or be a success.
