As an Enterprise Architect and Editor for your friendly neighborhood technical blog, I spend quite a bit of time trying to read through the pea-soup Redmond fog to make educated guesses on where Microsoft is going with their technologies and tools. This used to be a lot easier, with most new products and features leaking out of Microsoft like a sieve through MSDN blogs or direct interaction with employees at the occasional conference. But lately they’ve slammed the blinds shut on prying eyes like mine in an attempt to pull some Apple-esque product marketing coups; a move that has left many an industry expert to speculate on the motivations and choices they are making. In some cases, it’s the speculation and uncertainty that in fact become the news, leaving the real story to be buried under attacks on Steve Ballmer, predictions of “catastrophe”, and overall FUD. The real story is that Microsoft is taking some big chances and doing exciting things they’ve never done before… and that scares the HECK out of us!
But our fear and overall shock at the radical change in direction shouldn’t make us lose sight of the fact that some real innovation is coming our way, whether we’re ready for it or not.
Windows 8
As a relatively old man in this industry, I remember the days before Windows. IBM ruled the PC world and only businesses could afford them. But Bill Gates had a dream that everybody would want one of these machines and so Windows was born from OS/2′s ashes by offering a desktop GUI without the high cost memory requirements. And for the next twenty years Microsoft out maneuvered, out bought, or outright crushed anybody that threatened the dream of every person in the world having a PC, and all of those PCs running Windows. But in the past five years the very definition of “Personal” Computer has shifted from desktops to handhelds. Microsoft, clinging to their flagship desktop roots, tried mightily to jam the Windows desktop experience onto these smaller form factors only to fail miserably, a failure which has allowed competitors Microsoft thought they had successfully fought off (Apple and Linux(Android)) to become industry leaders. Now Microsoft finds itself in a tough spot, playing catch up in an industry it once monopolized.
But adversity tends to bring out character, and Windows 8 is the direct result of some clever innovation as well as some hugely courageous risk taking on Microsoft’s part. Rather than push desktop metaphors onto ill-fitting form factors in an attempt to leverage their existing marketshare, they’re putting all features up for review. Nothing is sacred, not even the beloved Start button. Like a child leaving the safety of the side of the pool, Microsoft is putting their flagship product into the deep end to compete for the new personal computer or drown trying.
Microsoft does however have a bit of a lifeline. While Windows 8 is going to usher in a new swath of tablets, ultrabooks, and touch-enabled laptops all but the most fool-hearty traditional PC desktops will remain safely on Windows 7 shores. Having just completed a large scale adoption cycle from Windows XP to Windows 7, most organizations are not in a hurry to adopt Windows 8 which could leave Microsoft with some time to sort out just how to balance their latest innovations with the reality of massive legacy deployments.
Buried in the sheer magnitude of Windows 8 features is a number of innovations that each involve their own risks. Failure on any one area is not likely to be enough to sink the whole OS, but taken together they represent a formidable amount of change for any user base to adopt.
WinRT
Innovation: The Windows Runtime (WinRT) is a long overdue replacement for the aging Win32 architecture that has been the foundation of Windows since the very beginning. With first class support of the latest input, media, and networking technologies as well as the ability to use language projection to support a number of languages and environments right out of the gate, WinRT is a giant leap forward for application development. While currently limited to Metro UI styled apps only, WinRT will be the future of software development within Windows.
Risk: Long before Steve Ballmer bounced around stage shouting “Developers, Developers, Developers” Microsoft had always believed that developers were the key to the success of Windows. Microsoft invested heavily into getting developers to write applications in Windows as a way to ensure that users would purchase PCs to run them on. But the Internet and standardization of web technologies has created a world where developers are no longer tied to a specific platform. HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript are not only becoming ubiquitous but are spreading like a virus and have already killed off previous technologies like Flash and Silverlight. WinRT’s support of native apps written in HTML5, CSS, and Javascript means developers can write apps that do not require or even favor the Windows OS, potentially undermining one of the longest standing drivers of consumers to Windows.
Metro UI
Innovation: The Metro UI model is a radical departure from the previous Windows GUI. In fact, it is not a windowed interface at all. Rather than opt for massive amounts of system personalization, Microsoft is instead forcing apps to follow a simpler, more consistent user experience. Metro UI applications are largely independent and full screen making window and desktop management unnecessary. New gesture based interactions allow users to quickly work with data that would have taken dozens of clicks in a mouse and keyboard world. Cross application integration is made more consistent and simpler with Charms, specific pathways for applications to interact. Finding and launching applications has become simpler with tile based menus and the removal of the Start button. Fancy animations and Aero glass effects are gone in order to avoid wasting CPU cycles, and more importantly power. No part of the user experience has been left untouched in an effort to provide a simpler, faster, and more fluid user interface.
Risk: Innovation or change in user experience by definition is disruptive. Even so, the Metro UI represents a heck of a learning curve, particularly for those of us who have been using windowed base GUIs for the past two decades. Many of the fundamental UI metaphors have changed. Furthermore, while the new Metro UI works well with tablet or other touch enabled devices traditional desktop users have found many of the changes incredibly frustrating. By forcing their users to learn a new way of working with their computers, Microsoft is both setting themselves up as a source of user malcontent and also opening the door for these users to switch to what could possibly end up being a more familiar interface; OSX.
Windows Store
Innovation: While it’s not exactly the first app store around, the market for Metro apps on Windows makes the Apple App Store look like small potatoes. By creating a consistent source for all Metro apps on the Windows OS, Microsoft is going to make applications easier to find, install, and execute. And of course, much to the delight of Microsoft shareholders they will be able to rake in a percentage of every app sold. But Microsoft is also incenting developers to make their apps available for trial at no cost, so consumers will be able to take advantage of more free software than ever before. Also by allowing ads and custom billing solutions within apps, the Windows Store will be considerably more developer friendly than the Apple AppStore. And lets not forget about XBox Live integration which will help to converge our PCs with our living room entertainment.
Risk: While Windows 8 Pro users will still be able to download software directly to their machines outside the Windows Store, or insert a CD for installation, Microsoft has decided to lock down the Windows RT version (version running on ARM devices) to only allow apps to be installed via the Windows Store. In the past this sort of thing would be met with the wrath of government fair-trade watchdogs or involve multi-buhzillion dollar fines in Europe. But Microsoft is the underdog in mobile devices with no monopoly to protect and so its unclear whether this will meet with the same fate as having IE or Windows Media Player pre-installed in prior versions of Windows. Regardless of which version the user installs though, Microsoft is going to have an immediate and open conduit to consumers from which to sell apps through their stores. Companies like Valve who operate an app store for Windows games are directly threatened by Windows Store and have been pretty darned vocal about their concerns. Others cite concerns over possible Windows Store censorship of competing apps including the FireFox and Google browsers which won’t be able to run in Desktop mode on Windows RT.
Surface
Innovation: Microsoft has seldom ventured into the hardware manufacturing space, but for Windows 8 they have developed two different versions of tablet devices. These devices will showcase the Windows 8 experience as Microsoft intends it to be experienced by consumers without OEM interpretation or bloatware. Shipping in a smaller, less powerful ARM version as well as an x86 ultrabook replacement model the devices themselves are well designed and equipped with features common to most tablets today. One rather innovative feature is their smart covers that incorporate a touch senstive keyboard and mousepad into the screen protection. While pricing is still yet to be defined these tablets are intended to compete directly with the iPad and Android tablets.
Risk: In a recent SEC filing, Microsoft admitted that by competing with their OEM partners in the tablet space they run the risk of alienating their long term Windows partners. In addition to the competition created by the Surface tablet Microsoft has also further limited the Windows RT OEM partners to only two per ARM chip provider (Lenovo, Asus, Toshiba, and Samsung thus far have been identified). HP has already dropped out of the Windows RT market favoring the larger x86 models instead. By attempting to strictly control the hardware side of the equation with Windows 8, Microsoft is walking a thin line between partner and overlord. While the intent is clearly to make sure that consumers get the best Windows 8 experience possible, they are turning what was once an open market into a much more restrictive one which could force OEMs to reconsider their support for competing operating systems.
While the grand scale of the changes Windows 8 represents come with certain risks, some of which I’ve written about and certainly many more I’m not able to see from my vantage point, one thing is very clear. Microsoft isn’t backing down from the challenge to create a new user experience. Even in the face of some pretty stiff criticism (some by yours truly), you gotta give them credit for being willing to put Windows itself on the line.
What about backwards compatibility? Will Windows 8 break old applications?
Old applications will be able to run in Desktop mode on Windows 8 Pro. There are some restrictions on what will run on Windows 8 RT and that is what FireFox and Google are complaining about.
Thank you.
Oh my word! The whole idea of only being able to install software through the Windows Store is not on. I’ll stick to my Windows 7 thank you very much.
The article itself states you can still do this; just not on the RT version. But if you are sticking with Win7 then you won’t be running the RT version it isn’t a problem. Keep calm and embrace Windows 8.
Windows 8 doesn’t require you to install through the Windows Store unless the apps are Metro apps (which won’t run on Windows 7 anyway). And even then there is an “out” for enterprises. Since Windows RT only supports Metro apps it is the only thing that has the full-on (Apple-like) experience. I think a lot of traditional Windows users will avoid Windows RT, but that doesn’t matter. Windows 8 is the product for them…not that there is anything wrong in sticking with Windows 7 for traditional desktops/notebooks.
That’s only on ARM devices. On your normal machine you can install software like you do now. The ARM devices will mostly be new tablets.
You can still develop and install Desktop applications without the Windows Store.
You can even develop Metro Style Application and install all over your company without the Windows sotre.
The big advantage for developers is that they can develop an application and make it available to everyone using Windows 8 through the store.
If you have programs you use on Windows 7, just get Windows 8 Pro, that way you can still install them like you would in 7. The store only applies for Metro style apps.
What’s this ‘brave’ rubbish? Windows 8 is just Windows 7 (which is just a refined Windows 6/Vista etc etc) with the start button replaced with a animated-tile program launcher. You can turn the start button back on with a registry hack.
Once you look part the usual marketing FUD, it’s just the same old Windows, and people who use Windows now will ultimately end up using it because it will be installed on their next PC, not because they choose to.
Microsoft know this; they can keep on selling the same OS, re-badged with a new name year after year because their money comes from the OEMs not the end-user themselves, and OEMs don’t like change.
Developers will not use RT while Win32 is still around (which will be decades) and most end-users will see that Metro is a fad and will use the ‘old’ interface.
Nor will developers use the store for serious applications, for the same reason why so many Mac developers do not use the app store.
Microsoft will be successful in tablets, if only because their OEM partners will produce cheaper models in abundance than Apple and most users don’t consider total cost of ownership.
‘Brave’ would Microsoft building an all new OS, with a new interface paradigm and a brand new API that’s truly suited to this century, while possibly providing a sand-boxed emulation environment for ‘classic windows’ apps (as Apple did 10 years ago).
Yep, agreed. Just try provisioning a B2B application for iOs. We’ve given up iPad/iPhone development unless a client is very resistant to our advice and are recommending Android as it will in any case become ubiquitous this year and in 2013. Why spend a large proportion of your development budget trying to get the product distributed?! We have one app which runs perfectly, our client wants it, our client’s clients want it, but there is currently no practical provisioning route! Who needs that? Hopefully Windows 8 will not go down the same paranoid route and will continue to allow people to install software they way they want to install it.
A lot of people still work 9 to 5s infront of a desktop pc and when they get home they play games and if they want anything of value done they still use a desktop. Most people still watch movies on tv and to be quite honest I don’t feel like holding a device for a 1 1/2 hour movie . Tablets have a place but ( at least for now ) they are not the end al of desktop. I don’t think there will ever come a day when I pack up my pc to play call of duty on a tablet. In terms of over all experience and usability the desktop is top prize .. massive graphics .. nice big screen .. and powerful. And windows 8 is nice. Fast , slicker and even more powerful. I don’t see Microsoft going away any time soon. I would like a tablet , but I want one that works with my pc. The abstraction between the two I believe is not ideal, and honestly just a waste of time. I have seen lots of people with tablets and the most they use it for is angry birds and browsing the web .
Microsoft touts each new development as “the future of computing” and every new development is as quickly abandoned as the next “future of computing” is announced. Developers have to know that the technology and tools they invest in are going to be around long enough to be worth the time and money spent in acquiring them.
MS is not perfect, but they are doing what needs to be done to survive. On a further note (as an ancient developer), if MS and windows had not driven the industry for the past 20-25 years we would not be where we are today. Apple and others had some populist innovations but bluntly we’d still be using 3270 green screens and Sun workstations at $35,000 a pop if Sun and IBM had won the consumer/commercial desktop app market (and forget mobile phones, pads, Bluetooth, Browsers, HTML, etc etc)
So report all the relevant facts not bias – Consider:
1. Only install via App Store – Precedent: Apple “Innovation”
2. Managed Hardware – Precedent: Apple “Innovation”
3. Locked down OS – Precedent: Apple “Innovation”
4. Skimming the App Store profits – Precedent: Apple “Innovation”
5. App validation – Precedent: Apple “Innovation” (but more draconian/punitive)
So what has MS done to give the Media and our SEC overlords a “anti-competitive/restrictive/monopolistic” action to prosecute?
1: Visual Studio Express (Where are the Apple free dev. tools?)
2. SQL Server Express (Where are the Apple free db tools?)
3. ASP/.NET/Win Open source (Where are the Apple source codes?)
4. I could go on but do I really need to?
The “gentlemen” in the Media – and yes that includes all the bloggers – need to actually report not just MS’s current or past naughtiness but also their very vocal competitors (look up “Big Lie”) and the “bureaucrats” in Washington need to be a little more considered and selective in their targets.
1: Apple free dev. tools: Xcode
2: Apple free db tools: MySQL, SQLite, choose your open source
3: Apple source codes: everything is online at opensource.apple.com (except the GUI of Mac OS X do you see the code of Windows online?)
4: Yes, do go on
Xcode is free…. It’s only if you want to install you’re application on a iOS device that you need to buy into the developer app market.
I can’t comment on points 2 and 3. But you’re bait diehard tho yeah
A small point perhaps, but Xcode is free. It’s only if you want to sell your application through the app store or run on an iOS device that you need to pay an annual subscription fee, about $100.
I guess you could use Express to build and maintain an app, I would’nt envoy you much. In a consumer market is America at all relevant. China, then India get first takes in the cloud accelerator programmes. USA 3rd and Europe unmentioned.
@RDC you are just so right, and the list of ‘iNnovations’ is particularly apt. Apple’s dominance of the tablet and phone market as it has emerged thus far is a triumph of brand awareness and control over common sense and one which seems to have blinded most journalists almost completely. Perhaps it is no coincidence that most of them seem to use iPhones and iPads! I own a range of devices for development and testing, so I get to compare, and actually I prefer my Android tablet in use.
Whatever their shortcomings may or may not have been over the years, the initially viciously expansionist Microsoft has provided a common, stable and essentially open environment within which many industries have prospered. That, to use the current buzz, is a proper ecosystem. People seem to be forgetting the fact that iOS is tied to a small range of physical devices – and that ultimately no single manufacturer is going to dominate the world, and neither should it. Within a few years, iPads and iPhones will be just another forgotten fad amongst many as the world comes to its senses and mobile computing takes its proper place alongside other emerging technologies such as AR, digital TV etc.
I wouldn’t have had an issue if Microsoft had decided to develop Metro (and its attendant ugly, flat and colorless design schemes) strictly for tablet machines and left desktop Windows alone. As it is, however, I just went out and bought the most powerful machines my budget could afford and loaded them with Win7 because I have no intentions of moving to this platform.
I have been developing to Microsoft platforms almost since they were called Microsoft. I still will – but it will be from Windows 7 from this point on unless they return to the Windows metaphor that has been so successful. They did *not* have to break Windows to move ahead here any more than Apple broke OSX to write iOS. Bad move Microsoft. With absolutely no referendum you simply decided that we all must go a different direction. Sorry … I ain’t on this bandwagon.
Whrther HTML/JS or XAML or C++, the rest of the world will move on with the technology stack shift. Win7 proprietary apps can stay with the platform, nothing wrong with that.
With the “cloud” implementation of web-standards-based svc-oriented paradigm on the backend, the n-tier architecture is now at the network-connected level.
BTW, curious about the state of touch-based Linux roadmap… Anyone?
You think you really have a choice? Your users and customers will be on Win8 even if you’re not and sooner or later you will be forced to ‘upgrade’.
That’s the tyranny of the MS monopoly.
Actually that’s not really the case. I’ve always kept to the policy of developing on a stable OS whilst everyone else figures out how to get the bugs out of the new release. Worked like a charm with XP – just kept developing on that platform for ages and skipped the nightmare of Vista completely – never installed it or had it on a single machine. I still have corporate clients who are running earlier versions of Windows, browsers and all kinds of software because to roll out over hundreds of PCs is a massive deal and a risk for their IT departments. I wouldn’t sweat too much. Win 8 will no doubt have its issues, but the MS monopoly actually works in favour of us all by providing a known standard.
OS/2′s ashes? Window and OS/2 were contemporaneously developed to answer the call for a multi-tasking OS. Neither was successful until 1993/94.
November 20, 1985, two years after the initial announcement, Microsoft ships Windows 1.0. Now, rather than typing MS‑DOS commands, you just move a mouse to point and click your way through screens, or “windows.” Bill Gates says, “It is unique software designed for the serious PC user…”
Released in December, 1987, OS/2 1.00 was the first ever operating system for the Personal Computer to provide intrinsic multitasking based on hardware support. It was text mode only and allowed only one program to be on the screen at a time, even though other programs could be running in the background.
How about AmigaOS as the first intrinsic multitasking OS based on hardware support? It was two years ahead of OS/2.
I think Microsoft has taken this way really late, overhelmed by actors they never bet can have a role in this race. May be ten years ago, MS could have had the best linux, and not to fight against it, but now is too late.