Ok… Island Dog and I have both written about Windows 8. This post is just to update what we know about W8 from Steve Sinofsky’s blog  (B8) and updates from MS personnel. There are thirty-five teams building this version of Windows.

“Today more than two out of three PCs are mobile (laptops, netbooks, notebooks, tablets, slates, convertibles, etc.). Nearly every PC is capable of wireless connectivity. Screen sizes range from under 10" to wall-sized screens and multiple HD screens. Storage has jumped from megabytes to terabytes and has moved up to the cloud. The appearance of touch-screen mobile phones with the rich capabilities they bring, have together changed the way we all view computing.

Most of all, computing is much more focused on applications and on people than on the operating system itself or the data. These changes in the landscape motivate the most significant changes to Windows, from the chips to the experience.” - Steve Sinofsky, B8 blog

From here, you can understand my thoughts about the “paradigm shift” from the desktop-centric early days of computing to today’s mobile, "touch centric” platforms and my earlier article about whether the desktop was going the way of the dinosaur.

There are going to be two W8’s:

1. For “Touch centric” pads. These are going to have the ‘Metro’ W7 phone look. Their apps or “live Tiles” which can be resized to full screen or snapped to the sidebar will be web oriented HTML5 for hardware acceleration and work through ie10. They won’t be limited to Intel chips, but will be using AMD and chips from other manufacturers. They will have true multitasking, and these pads will have laptop power. They will be native USB3.0 so the throughput will be enlarged greatly and be capable of much more data (and graphics) abilities, increasing to 5 Gbps from 480 Mbps. Therefore it’ll charge devices tied to it faster, and will be a lot greener in it’s use of power, saving the battery usage. It’ll have a split touch keyboard for better use of thumbs: In short, a W8 tablet "will be a full PC with USB ports, full multitasking, an accessible file system, networking capability, printing, and the ability to run any software anyone programs for it, not just what it's maker allows in its app store.” (Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine). Also, “gestures” will be inherent to this OS.

2. For Desktops and laptops:

From the get go, Sinofski said, that Windows 8 will run on existing PCs: "It is also important to know that we're 100 percent committed to running the software and supporting the hardware that is compatible with over 400 million Windows 7 licenses already sold and all the Windows 7 yet to be sold."

What’s unclear is what will happen to the even greater number of PCs that run earlier versions of Windows, particularly XP.

Also, Julie Larson-Green, corporate vice president of Windows Experience has said (at D9) and has written, "These new Windows 8 apps are full-screen and touch-optimized, and they easily integrate with the capabilities of the new Windows user interface." The Windows 8 presenters also stressed that existing Windows 7 apps would still run, and that switching between the two types would be seamless. It looked like they had to switch to a W7 type screen to do that (at D9), but that could just have been an early demo with things changing since then.

Windows 8 will take advantage of the cloud, that much is clear from Office 365, Windows Live SkyDrive, and the Web-connected apps and tiles. Also, Microsoft clearly sees what Apple is doing with it soon-to-be-released iCloud service, and one of the thirty-five teams is called “Windows Online”.

So, what will this mean to customization?

Well, since the Desktop/laptop W8 seems to be engineered to use older software and non touch enabled screens, I’d think that customizing this OS will depend on whether it has to implement W7 to get to the older apps, and to what degree W8 would be “hard coded”. If W7 is an indication (and ie9), then I’d say “not good”.

Maybe Microsoft could use some “early on” input about that…

“We started the Engineering Windows 7 blog in 2008 in recognition of the need to re-engage the community and rebuild trust relative to the engineering and design of Windows. While engineering Windows 7, we learned some great lessons and renewed our sense of responsibility to the community. As we moved on to building Windows 8, we took those values and have built on them.” – Steve Sinofsky, B8 blog

The tablet “touch centric” W8 OS will offer challenges and opportunities. If the tile makers “soft code” them, apps to change size/shape/color might work… if not, then tablets will be lost for skinning. Some input to MS and it’s proposed app store and to developers might help there, too. I hope Stardock and WinCustomize members will provide that.

Sources:

https://forums.wincustomize.com/411237

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/15/welcome-to-building-windows-8.aspx

https://forums.wincustomize.com/408012

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/286738/windows-8-what-we-know-so-far/1