Okay Geek Farm
Windows 8 in action - Looks great, but still seems half-baked
Brandon Davenport
What you see above is Windows 8. This new Operating System will run on PC’s, Laptops and Tablets. Microsoft says Windows 8 is designed for touch first, and the mouse and keyboard second. The look of the operating system is delicious, taking every core component from Windows Phone’s “Metro” UI, and bringing it to the big screen. Windows 8 makes Windows 7 look obsolete — but theres quite a few gaping holes in the Windows 8 wonder.
Microsoft Windows 8 in action
New stuff in Windows 8
- A “Start” screen where information is displayed up-front
- Tiles are replacing icons, and can display live info like weather, status updates and avatars.
- HTML5 and Javascript come together to allow developers to create apps for full-screen viewing.
- Intuitive multitasking via touch gestures.
- Running two apps at the same time (a feature called “Snap”) where you can make each app a certain size (slim and wide), and switch them out when neccicary.
- Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 is designed for touch first, and the keyboard has a neat new “thumbs” layout for typing with your thumbs.
- You can run existing Windows apps like Word, Excel and games and you can access the file-system, even within the Windows 8 UI. You’ll also be able to access files from different apps, and files stored online.
- You’ll be able to further customize the look of the OS, and perform many of the familiar gestures and functions found on the Windows Phone.
What we love about Windows 8
As soon as we saw the Metro UI for the first time on a phone, everyone at Okay Geek was in love, and we just couldn’t wait to play with it. As an OS, Metro is just wonderful but as an experience, it’s platform (Windows Phone) is failing. When rumor of a Microsoft tablet graced the bloggosphere, we we’re jolted yet again with the hopes of Metro coming to the big screen — the first touch UI to give the iPad a run for it’s money — but we couldn’t have imagined this.
Windows 8 is just splendid with the way it brings Metro to the desktop, tablet and laptop and keeps the core fundamentals of a desktop OS. The addition of giving developers the ability to develop in HTML5/Javascript is awesome, and the overall look and feel of Windows 8 is nothing less than epic — but it sadly ends there.
What we hate about Windows 8
As soon as Steven Sinofsky, Windows division President, mentioned the words “file system” (refer to the video), we were expecting a revolutionary Metro themed file system that tied into the OS as a whole, but we didn’t. Instead we were hustled off back into very familiar territory (Windows 7 to be exact) and we were just shaking our heads. It got worse when Steven showed “existing apps running” and it was Excel 2007 just sitting there inside the bloated shell of Windows 7.
It’s as if Microsoft focused so much on the new look and features, they forgot entirely about the other half of the OS. I mean, there’s essentially 2 operating systems running at once and my Mom supposed to know what’s going on? If Windows 8 is going to ship like this, it could be Vista all over again unless Microsoft desides to polish every part of the new operating system.
Final thoughts
Windows 8 won’t be here for a while longer, and in that time we really hope Microsoft is taking Metro and implementing that gorgeous UI into every nook and cranny of Windows 8. But at the same time, we don’t want Microsoft to re-invent the wheel — these are some drastic changes, and they won’t be accepted easily. Lets hope for the best and look forward to the official release of Windows 8 and the new lines of devices that will follow.
