Clumsy and Impractical

18 June 2012

Adrian Kinglsey-Hughes’ “Final thoughts on Windows 8”: > Bolting on a new user interface is one thing, but when that user interface is incomplete, it makes you question the value of having it in the first place. One of Hughes’ predictions for Windows 8 seems unlikely: > Windows 9 will look significantly different to Windows 8, and likely switch back to the ‘traditional’ Windows interface; As usual, Microsoft’s dependence on the Enterprise and the ponderous pace of change in corporate IT departments means it has to drag the baggage of the existing Windows brand and interface along for the ride. 

If Microsoft push ahead and release Windows 8 as-is then I think it has to stick with it, leaning on the OEM vendors to push it to consumers and pulling strings at the upper echelons of big corporates. 

Microsoft has been able to offer inordinately long-term support to big business customers for so long because of its unassailable market position in the PC era. The mobile and touch-based device market does not afford them the same luxury and they might just find the Windows baggage too heavy a burden to bare this time round.

I don’t see them backing away from Metro as a product, but I could see them splitting Windows 9 into more traditional desktop and mobile flavours; the former without Metro, the latter with.