What is Windows 8 and Do You Need It?

Microsoft has been working on a new operating system for a couple of years, there have been many spoofs on YouTube but not too long ago they released the public developer preview, which means that pretty soon Windows 8 will be out on the market. A lot of people have tried it and those who haven’t wonder if it’s something that they need to purchase. Windows XP was decent, but Windows Vista was a total disaster. Then, they released Windows 7 which seemed to fix everything. It seems like an every-other trend as far as which ones suck and which ones don’t.

Windows 8 has a completely different layout to it (of course) that looks a lot like Windows Phone 7 which is their latest mobile operating system. Because of this, the main part of the operating system is really optimized for a touch interface, and not many of the Windows users have touch capable computers. You can switch back to the look of the Windows 7 operating system, but it doesn’t intertwine with the programs very well due to the operating system being mainly designed for touch.

As far a performance though, it works great. Responsiveness is fast and speedy, it does what you want it to do and doesn’t complain. However, because program availability is limited it’s sort of hard to tell how it works with the programs I use on a day-to-day basis. There are a lot of full screen applications which I like, but it really doesn’t feel right working with this layout in a mouse and keyboard configuration when all the buttons are bigger that you’re used to. I think for the average Windows user it’s not going to be something you’re going to want to buy right away. I would be surprised if OEMs started putting it on their systems right away.

However, there is a very good feature on it. It has its own app store just like Mac OS. When the operating system is complete, you will find a selection of apps in the app store both free and paid that have been checked by Microsoft. Customers should be able to leave reviews so other users will know what to expect, and you will know that you aren’t just downloading a virus. This is something that I think a lot of Windows users have been waiting for a long time. There have also been people saying that Windows will have a file system that can’t get fragmented, like Mac OS. I think it’s a bit hard to say whether or not this is true though, since Windows supports basically all the computer hardware out there. Who knows though, they could find a way to easily do this.

Will there be tablets that will handle the new look of Windows? We did see some at CES that looked pretty good, and it would be very easy for manufactures to make tablets with Windows 8. We did have Windows tablets back in the days of Windows XP, but they were clunky and really just laptops with screens that turned around, and you had to use a stylus which made it even worse.

The new tablets that we’ve seen look great and are the way a tablet should be, the only question is, what will they cost? Pretty much any halfway successful tablet you see today has to be under $500 to compete with the cost of the iPad. Most tablet users are looking for a tablet but really don’t want to have to pay for the cost of the iPad, so if they find something more expensive than the iPad most of the time they will go for the iPad instead. It’s already going to be hard for tablet manufacturers to make Windows 8 tablets for under $500 simply because Windows 8 will probably cost around $70-100 for OEMs which already takes a big chunk away from profits. The reason they can make Android tablets so cheap (think Kindle Fire) is because Android is free, this isn’t the case with Windows. Who knows, maybe they will lower the pricing but I doubt it. Microsoft is a software company which means most of their profits come from the software they sell.

Whether or not Windows 8 tablets come out right away, I would like to see them do what Apple did with their operating system. Apple has 2 operating systems. Mac OS and Mac OS Server. They don’t have a Mac OS Basic, Mac OS Professional, or a Mac OS Ultimate. Just one version of the OS, and another version if you want it for a server. I would like to see Microsoft do this and just have Windows 8 and Windows Server. This will make it less confusing for consumers, but like I said I doubt they will do this simply because they need to sell software. Who knows. Would you buy Windows 8?