Microsoft released its first preliminary version of Windows 8 roughly a month ago. It’s somewhat raw, definitely incomplete, and absolutely the most controversial Windows version the company has ever considered releasing.
There’s no question that this is a thoughtfully designed, thoroughly engineered release. If you had any doubts, just read through the Building Windows 8 blog, where Windows boss Steven Sinofsky and a parade of program managers have published one epic post after another explaining the history, evolution, and design philosophy that went into every new feature in Windows 8. As of today, that blog is up to 30 posts (at least one of which was more than 8800 words in length) and has inspired more than 8,000 comments.
I’ve heard senior execs call this the biggest bet Microsoft has ever made. There’s no question it’s the biggest change since Windows 95.
I’ve talked in private to Microsoft employees who are split on the wisdom of the new operating system’s radical reimaging. Many think it’s brilliant, others are skeptical, a few are convinced it’s a disastrous wrong turn. Customers and Windows users I talk to are split along roughly the same lines.
Making a change of this magnitude to a product that is 25 years old, has a billion customers, and is still growing? That takes guts and a willingness to alienate some customers in the interest of building a platform that can last another 25 years.
All the explanations, all the comments, all the criticisms are interesting. They’re also mostly a sideshow. The Windows 8 engineering juggernaut is rolling along at full speed, and while the feedback will certainly inspire some minor tweaks in the coming months, it’s not going to cause a great rethinking of the great reimagining.
What I find most interesting about the Windows 8 discussion so far is how little of it is based on personal experience. Now that I’ve had a chance to use and dissect the Windows Developer Preview for the past month, I want to offer a deeper look at what’s inside and some predictions about what you can expect in the future.
This deeper dive is divided into four parts:
Page 2: The misunderstood Start screen
No, it’s not the “Metro shell.” It’s a full-screen replacement for the familiar Start menu. Brilliant idea or a bridge too far?
Page 3: What’s next for the Windows desktop?
There are virtually no “immersive,” Metro style apps for the Windows Developer Preview, which means anyone testing this pre-release is going to spend time in an environment that looks an awful lot like Windows 7. So what’s new? And what can we expect to change?
Page 4: To touch or not to touch?
This is the one complaint I’ve heard above all others. Do people really want touchscreens? Will they use them? I share my personal experience with three touch-enabled form factors.
Page 5: Security and reliability
Yeah, I know. Microsoft claims every version of Windows is more secure than the previous one. Windows 8 is no exception, but it pushes some boundaries with new features that have already inspired controversy.
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