OK, so I'm prepared for the onslaught of "this is just a preview" and all the rest, but I've followed along pretty closely, and I believe Windows 8 is trying to create something (sorry, "re-envison") that does not need to be created.
A tablet is not a "computer", it is a portable "portal" at best. Yes, you can have it dockable so a real keyboard and mouse can be put to use, you might even have a "one-up" on Apple by making a tablet "ACT" more like a computer, but that is just adding
features that really don't belong. When you consider storage, computing power (CPU speed, RAM, capture devices, etc...), a tablet is just not the way to go.
In the conference series, an oft repeated mantra is "Windows 8 is "touch first"". OK, that's the killer right there. Yeah, I've seen people get all wigged out at stroking the face of their smartphones and watching tiles slide by, it is visually
stimulating, and works very well for a totally hand-held device, including the tablet you might use from the easy chair while watching TV or reading a book hosted on the device.
I can see having a tablet, but I can NEVER see NOT HAVING a laptop AND desktop either. And that is where the "touch-centric" design falls flat on its face. I know there could be a slew of specific apps that can transform the portable into a data
gathering tool, but given the limitations already mentioned, any data gathered will most certainly be put to REAL use on a desktop, a laptop, a server, or input into a database.
Instead of providing fixes that millions of users would like to see in Windows 7, Windows 8 will be "touch first". Very bad. I DO NOT want to touch my screen at my desk, I want to use my mouse, my keyboard shortcuts, and of course my keyboard,
along with any hardware I might choose to add to my desktop (or docked laptop). I don't want my apps redesigned to be more "touch-centric", I want them to act just as they do now, improving on what they do now, but not sacrificing space so that fingers
can get in and do what mouse pointers have been doing for decades.
My hope is this "touch-centric" is just a bit of puffery, a corporate mantra to communicate the idea that they are serious about bringing "touch" into the mainstream. But I also hope that touch will take a back seat when I install Win8 on a destop
or laptop. I don't want to be saddled with working AROUND touch to do what I can do perfectly well with a mouse and keyboard right now, I don't want to even have to consider getting a touch-compatible monitor, it is beyond unnatural to lift my hands
from the keyboard + mouse to touch a screen. The concept is flat out silly.
In case it wasn't clear, desktops and laptops do not have problems that need to be solved with touch. Portable devices almost beg for touch input, but less portable devices like laptops can only use touch effectively for a limited set
of tasks, and in my opinion, barely has any application at all for desktops.
It is my belief that Microsoft should strive to make the tablet interface all it can be, and not muddy the water by pretending you can re-invent the desktop experience by bringing tablet features.
If Microsoft sticks to this touch-centric user interface, I'll probably keep using Win7 until support dies for it, I won't be installing a "touch-centric" OS on a machine I expressly do NOT want touch on. This of course means my desktops, and
while I can see touch having a bit more applicability to a laptop, I also don't really want to work around the touch-centric interface to put my laptop to good use.
The final product should offer installation dialogs that present options for touch hardware on desktop and laptop installations. If I install for no touch devices AT ALL, then I do not want to be saddled with working around an interface that attempts
to make my desktop emulte a portable device. I want a desktop, I want clickable icons, and I want menus, I don't want a field of tiles that are obviously meant for touch and gestures, I want a mouse and keyboard interface.
There will be millions of people that just want to browse the internet, send emails, and maybe smaller number that would like to use a tablet as a low profile, lightweight data collection tool (think scanning inventory in a warehouse) but
the people that actually have to use that data shouldn't be forced to adapt to "touch-centric" in order to do their work.
My heartiest recommendation would be to stop this "touch-centric" as the answer to all computing needs mantra, and service the market as it REALLY is, portable devices and fixed devices.
Don't waste time developing touch for devices that don't need it, and don't waste those people's time trying to work around an ill-concieved "vision".
You want to take market share from Apple? Sit down with your hardware partners and design an I-Pad killer. Don't ruin computing for the rest of us by pretending touch is something that is begging to be mainstream. To kill I-Pad, you have
your work cut out for you. First, you have to design a system that offers more connectivity. After all, I-Pad isn't sold as a computer either, its a toy that CAN have apps that make it useful in some business scenarios, but Apple limits its connectivity
and hardware, and expressly does not try and sell it as a replacement for COMPUTERS. With Win8 you look to be trying to "steal their thunder" by offering the portable toy experience and trying to make it "a real computer too". What a huge
mistake.
Fight them on their own turf. Make your tablet OS every bit as fun, and fast, and MORE flexible than Apple's, but don't lose sight of the fact that the destop and business laptop are used for genuine data processing and genuine computing. Don't
try to make a toy OS do the work of real business, and don't make real business have to work around the toy interface to get their work done.
Obviously this is all too late, Microsoft has made it clear they think they've got their finger "on the pulse of the market" and has decided to give real computing a seat in the back of the auditorium.
Is it just the success of Apple's Toy-Pad that caused the Microsoft train to derail? Did you even once consider that your customers might be better served by fixing things you've already "depreciated"? How about putting some effort into making
Media Player's tag editing truly world-class? How about Media Center's quirks? Media Center COULD be the absolute BEST set-top box interface, it's damn near perfect in appearence (if not implementation, yet), why not focus on providing the
best experience possible with code you already have instead of trying to re-invent the world of computing by forcing touch whare it does not belong?
You have the opportunity to provide computing OS's, AND toy OS's. You will be making a gigantic mistake trying to combine the two unless you are smart enough to have your setup programs get rid of the toy functions when installed on a genuine computer.
Doubt it?
Lets just start calling Windows 8 --Vista II-- right now, give everybody time to find a real computing OS before Windows 7 support is dropped.
