Comments on: 8 Reasons Web Workers Should Look Forward to Windows 8

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 29 May 2011 17:01:18 +0000

Love to see it earlier, too, Simon. To Rebecca’s point (below), we have DropBox, Time Machine, and other cool online services that have already been around for a while. Why should it take Microsoft 2-3 YEARS to add stuff like this to Windows. It’s clear to me that MS is losing relevancy in today’s world — as much as I am a MS guy, career-wise.

I believe in five years or so, we’ll see MS relegated primarily to the business space, where innovation and agility don’t matter as much.

By: Rebecca F

Rebecca F — Sat, 28 May 2011 02:08:51 +0000

Roaming profiles and cloud working? Roaming profiles are just a tweak away by using dropbox, Xmarks or something alike as a reference and ThinkFree Office already had cloud working at a far more reasonable price.
Portable Workspaces? Linux already runs portable from a USB.
Hybrid boot? “Typically”? The article reads “approximately” and doesn’t mention the hardware profile used to test it.
Windows Store? Obviously Linux and Mac have their own (with Ubuntu even selling software on it!).
Internet Explorer 10? Will it only run on Win8? Will we have to provide conditionals to make stuff work on it as well? Will they kill IE7 and IE8?
Integrated PDF reader? Linux has it too.
History Vault? Mac has Time machine, Linux had rsync and then in 2007 someone began writing TimeVault.
Skype Integration << This is interesting… Did they buy it because they saw people preferring it to [hotmail|msn|live] messenger? Will they keep their commitment to other OSes? Not so important since someone will always come with another innovation later.

How many of this will even be real when 2013 comes? How many of this will be there for usage at home over a "home premium" license?
Sorry but, IMHO, real innovation seems to be happening in other camps and, yet again, Microsoft seems to me to be playing catch up.

I think web workers should look forward to Google Chrome OS, Android apps working on Linux or the usually more refined Apple response.

By: David Scott

David Scott — Sat, 28 May 2011 01:14:01 +0000

Skype could very well be MSFT answer to FaceTime. History vault could be their answer to time machine. Apple is innovating, and everyone’s comparison of budding technologies to what Apple is already doing is certainly a clear sign of market domination.

That said, I would be cautious in thinking that Microsoft is simply reacting to the market. They’ve still got a few smart ones left on staff, and I have a feeling a techie breakthrough isn’t too far off. I’m not a huge Microsoft supporter, but I don’t ignore the elephant in the room, either.

By: Kevin Warhus

Kevin Warhus — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:21:09 +0000

Sounds awesome. I can’t wait for Windows 8. I loved the features to Windows 7 and am very excited to see what they do this time around. What I really want from my next Windows OS is some more mac mouse features. Those are so cool! When will PC start closing that gap a little more aggressively?

By: arae

arae — Fri, 27 May 2011 11:54:36 +0000

it is has better features

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:42:25 +0000

Some of these have indeed been in OS X for a while (App Store, Time Machine) but some of the coolest features are new (roaming profiles, for example).

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:26:14 +0000

Agreed, especially with more workplaces adopting a “bring your own” policy.

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:25:06 +0000

Yes, but Microsoft swiftly backtracked on supposedly slipped release date. We’ll see!

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:23:45 +0000

thanks for the comment, Keith. Some analysts do think it will be late 2012/early 2013, personally I am also hoping to see it sooner than that.

I really like the application workspaces idea — think it might be a step tio far for this release, but we’ll have to wait and see.

By: GordonQ

GordonQ — Fri, 27 May 2011 03:08:22 +0000

I like Windows7 too. It boots faster on my Mac than Snow Leopard.

The issue for Msft is that Apple is winning the ecosystem war, not the OS war. I like Windows7 but I’m invested in Mac h/w, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and iTunes to seamlessly manage media and apps. Windows needs to build a better ecosystem with more innovative partners than HP and Dell. Sony is a decent h/w designer but their reliability and support sucks.