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Will Windows 8 Be Ready For Release In 2012?
MrSeb writes with an excerpt from an Extreme Tech article on the Windows 8 release timeline: "...A Microsoft vice president announced that the Windows 8 beta would begin in late February 2012. The beta will be feature-complete and will allow developers to begin listing their apps in the Store. The timing of the beta is curious, and ultimately quite telling. ... The first public build of Windows 8 ... emerged in mid-September 2011; by the time the beta rolls around, it will have been ruminating for more than five months. If we follow the timeline forward — it took 10 months for Windows 7 to go from beta to public release — then it's possible that Windows 8 might arrive just in time for Black Friday 2012, or perhaps not in 2012 at all. Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android? Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?"
In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.
In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.
Yeah but have you seen how cheap the report is from IDC? It's a mere $3,500.00 which is a steal considering I just shelled out twelve and a half large for their forecast on computing devices. My god, the forecast I bought was a piddly 27 page PDF while this Windows 8 report is a weighty tome totaling 17 pages in girth and might even result in a printed copy that that I can set on my desk and hold down with a real human skull paperweight completely encrusted with diamonds. At this price, I am buying one copy for every member of my extended family -- these things will make great stocking stuffers next to moon rocks, 1913 Liberty Nickels and the keys to each person's personalized yacht. Of course he tweeted the meat and potatoes of this report -- they're practically GIVING it away on their site already! Be sure to stock up on these before they sell out!
My work here is dung.
Still dont understand why they put the windows concept in a separate app, and converted most of the OS to a single app on screen format
Ill be waiting for SP1. Server 2008 R2 has shown (at least to me) that Microsoft is trying to make server tasks more accessible at the cost of options and tweaking. Instead of having a nice GUI with lots of options, it's a purdy GUI with few options and the rest buried in some power shell syntax. Server 8 doesn't look like its helping their case.
The "traditional market" is a combination of consumers and bulk business users. The consumer market doesn't use XP much any more (outside of the Asian pirate community). The businesses still stuck on XP are slowly migrating as their old hardware dies, or switching to other devices ... BUT ... (there's always a "but") Windows 8 fulfills Microsoft's goal of moving back to a more frequent release model, thereby enabling them to EOL earlier versions quicker.
They don't want a repeat of XP, where an old OS cannibalizes future sales, ever again. You'll see annual "new versions", same as the iPhone (Balmer steals another Apple trick).
Please leave Windows 8 to trained proffessionals and do not try it at home.
The whole touchscreen related madness is very counterproductive in work environment.
Who would have guessed that phones would completely be the thing to mangle and ruin PC user interfaces... It's crazy but I've come full circle to thinking KDE4 might actually be the only sane desktop team left. Unless they're planning on turning it into a tablet/phone UI as well.
Wow, look at the assumptions inherent in that.
Reality check: Windows 8 tablets would flop if they were released today, and they will also flop if they are released in late 2012. So this doesn't "affect the chances" at all.
Similarly, Windows Phone is fucked too.
This space has room for at most two competitors, and those two are already established. Blackberry, WebOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone all didn't have a chair when the music stopped, sorry. Nothing more to see here, folks, move along.
Well, of course, it will be irrelevant to the traditional market. Most of us have barely upgraded, businesses are barely turning the corner off of WinXP, and, from what I've observed, this is marketed for the mobile arena. I could be wrong on that last point, but that is my perception.
Three things:
1. Everyone knows that every other release of Windows is good (Win 3.1, 98, XP, 7) and every other one sucks (Win 3.0, 95, ME, Vista.) No enterprise is going to jump on this release.
2. Enterprises are in various states of completing their transition to Win 7. Very few enterprises are going to begin another rip and replace cycle next year, so no one is going to jump on this release.
3. Everything in the press has stated how Microsoft has taken a different direction for this user interface (but lately admitting the old one is still there.) No enterprise is going to jump on this release.
With regards to tablets and phones.. I really don't care what OS mine runs other than I want to to work exactly the way I want it to work. I doubt Win8 will.
----- obSig
Do we care?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
If they want to continue to turn it into a Vista-like turd they may as well start shipping it now.
December 22, 2012. Unless there is no end of the world the previous day, in that case could be delayed,
They are trying to get into the mobile market with Windows 8, so I'm not surprised they are trying to release it ASAP. They want all the tablet manufacturers to be like, oohhhh Windows on a tablet, and it's UI isn't total crap on a touchscreen (the new home interface is suppose to be really nice for touchscreens).
Windows 8 will also have the metro apps, which I assume they will try to get developers to think about touchscreen devices (huge buttons, simple UI, gestures) more.
They are also going to port it to ARM, so that they can get into embedded devices too (tablets, smartphones, etc.).
Tablets could be x86 or ARM, and as you can see ARM is currently winning (iPad/2 anyone?)
No wonder the Mayans thought the world would end in 2012. Either that or their calendar software wasn't Win8 compatible.
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
Microsoft’s promise that Metro will be just as navigable with a mouse/keyboard as with fingers/stylus
And that sums it all up: the mouse/keyboard (artists' brush) will have no advantage over fingers (finger-painting). Mouse/keyboard being "dumbed down" to the fingerpaint experience. No classic Win7 interface = no Win8 for me.
> Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android?
I don't think so. I think it'll be the inability to get any serious work done without a keyboard and a mouse that will affect its chances much more than a few months difference either way on release.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Who's been placed in the Windows Mantra this time?
Windows isn't done,
until xxx won't run!
in Windows 8. Sounded like extreme bullshit to me. I figure something was discussed about merging the Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live pools with regard to achievements, social networking, multiplayer gaming, or pricing, and the blogs read way too much into it.
But has anything more come out on this since then?
Actually, I'm just sitting here naked listening to Hüsker Dü songs that I can find on youtube. Hüsker Dü's worst song has more merit than everything microshit ever produced.
Of course I'm drunk; do you think I let profound shit like this ever get out when I'm sober?
Is the price of the paper and not information asymmetry.
Deleted
Unless you move to the Pacific Northwest - they seceded right? Although isn't the date off, I thought that was later in a different future? Unless you're not talking about human augmentation and instead are referencing the popular misconceptions about the Mayan calendar... although in that case I think people who didn't wait for SP1 might be able to get Windows 8 with an early release before the end of time. Perhaps some clarification is in order, I think I want to answer to your point, but I can't find it.
It's Windows Phone - on your desktop. Like who wouldn't want that?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
really amazing advances
vastly improved
faster boot times
faster/better file copies
For a system that won't be in beta until next year, you are quite positive. Were these the same predictions you made before Vista went into beta? Just curious.
The AC is right ('twasn't me). We need one Cathedral (iOS) and one Bazaar (Android) and that's all. There's only two seats at this table and they're both taken.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
windows 8 = Microsoft BOB
If this is the Microsoft I'm familiar with, it'll probably be: "Windows isn't done 'till Office won't run." I mean, we are talking about an entity that cannot keep interfaces consistent across divisions of the same company.
I am forced to work with Outlook 2007 under Windows XP. What a nightmare. Copy/Paste doesn't even work consistently within the application itself. Sometimes you'll copy text out of a message and paste into a reply of the same thread, and either the OS or the App will add extra returns and spaces/tabs for no apparent reason. Annoying.
Worse still is Outlook's annoying habit of "are you sure" for EVERYTHING. Find an email with an attachment, open it, close the email. Windows/Outlook asks "Save changes to attachment?" NO. All I did was OPEN it, I didn't change squat! Why the app can't figure this out is a MAJOR FAILURE of Q/A.
So trust me, it'll be Office that breaks under Win8. Or something else critical. Or maybe it'll be by design so that everyone that "upgrades" to Win8 will be forced to buy new copies of Office.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Where does this term come from? I mean, are we talking about a business/institution here or what? I think it just means some large group of computers that some small set of professionals are responsible for maintaining...but at other times "enterprise" is used to actually refer to the overlying business structure. In that case, shouldn't we be referring to "the business" and not "the enterprise"?
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Windows 8 is a fucking joke, that metro interface is the most retarded thing I've ever seen.
I hope they fail big time this time.
"Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?"
I think Windows 8 will be different enough that it will do badly, no matter when it arrives.
A huge population of computer users do not want "new and different". This is a large part of why Windows XP has remain entrenched for so long, not just in businesses but also in people's homes. I made a point of replacing my parents' aging XP computer with a new one while XP was still available because I knew they'd hate learning whatever changes there were in Vista. On the other hand, now that XP is no longer a realistic option for new systems, I'll be watching the release date of Win8, so I can get them their next computer with Win7 on it, because it'll be less drastic a change than Windows 8 would be. I'd even undertake the effort of switching them to OS X or Linux before I'd try to switch them to Win8. (It's the same reason I find people familiar with ye olde MS Office tend to prefer switching to Open/LibreOffice rather than to MS Office 2007/2010.)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
How many times was Vista delayed. Then when it finally came out it sucked.
Seems to me that MS has a pattern of saying "wait, don't go with the competition! The *new improve* MS whatever will be out in six months, and will have all these awesome features!"
Then there is a delay, then another delay, then features are pulled, then more features are pulled. When the product is finally released, it completely sucks, but MS promises to have everything fixed in the next service pack, then SP2, then SP3 . . .
I thought that was the purpose of the start menu... and desktop icons... and the system tray... and the quick launch bar... and desktop widgets...
Twinstiq, game news
Let me just try that out - hold on;
Me: What could be a huge market for tablet devices which utilize native handwriting recognition and run industry standard software?
Siri: I found 7 industry standards... 3 of them are not far from you: [...]
Me: No, no, Siri, listen, I need a huge market for tablet devices which utilize native handrwriting recognition!
Siri: The Ojibwa and Tuskarora Iroquois are recognized Native American tribes near your location.
Me: Siri, are you dumb? I am looking for a huge market for tablet devices which utilize native handrwriting recognition!
Siri: I found 5 markets for tablets are near your location. Tap the one you want directions to:
MS's primary selling point is consistency. These OS's are breaking it.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Yes, Windows 8 is a superset of Windows 7, in much the same way that a computer with MS Bob was a superset of Windows 3.1. After installing Bob you could still run all of your old Windows apps, but they didn't integrate with the Bob environment, effectively undermining whatever (alleged) benefit that environment gave the machine.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Book it.
With their (MS) history of every other version flavor of Windows having problems, I'll wait for the successor to Win 8. Consider the history...
Win 95 - Win 98
Win NT - Win 2000
Win Me - Win XP
Win Vista - Win 7
Granted, the second one of each pair had problems but not nearly as much problems as the first. Is there a pattern here?
I'm wondering if Microsoft is contemplating giving windows away more or less free and then locking down the platform and go for an app store model where they take a cut of the software pie. A more secure DRM'd platform... Certainly takes away most of the threat of viruses and trojans and that could be used to sell the idea to the public.
What on earth are you doing thats taking you so long?
It is indeed "intents" except when someone is making a pun on intensive properties, such as discussions about GDP of a market vs. GDP per capita or number of open WLAN APs vs. percentage of open APs.
Windows is like Star Trek movies.
Only every other version is worth your time. Windows 7 was good therefore Window 8 will be rubbish.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I found it really disturbing that MS wants to be like Apple and shit OS's by the dozen, who cares about windows 8? Seriously.
Most companies will adopt windows 7 as the next "XP" meaning, for at least 5 or 6 years if not more than that. Windows 8, 9 10,fuck.
That's like Mcdonal changing it's fries, NO.
Q: When will Windows 8 be released?
A: About six months before it's ready.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Glenn Beck, is that you?
larger form-factor, touch based devices
When these larger form factors extend into a physical size three to four times that of the iPad, from 1024x768 up to 1920x1080, we're looking at gorilla arm syndrome.
How old are you, again?
No, Mojave was Windows Vista SP1. Windows 7 is SP3.
and that will kill Enterprise sales / steam / open source apps on windows and make lunix big.
The linux desktop is a total fubar (latest examples are the mass migration going on from Ubuntu to Mint.
Why wipe and install Mint when you can just sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop?
Delay the "sucking sound"!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I don't see what's so bad about the layout of LCARS, at least the variant shown here. I see a taskbar down the far left, an "Elbo" strip dividing app-wide controls from the document, a toolbar inside the Elbo, a document below the Elbo, and a tab list to the left of the document. The only improvement I'd make is to swipe the Elbo's corner to show or hide the taskbar, as seen on some of the existing screenshots that show only the app and document areas. It's really not too much of a jump from a traditional tabbed-document-interface GUI. I can draw you a mockup of what an LCARS-style UI might look like using a more this-century color scheme.
Windows 8 will be released precisely on time.
Just a bit past 10 AM EST on the morning of Decembre 23rd 2012.
The only individual who will notice is a slashdot contributor with no windows in his Mom's basement.
I'm still playing my games on XP, cause I haven't found a reason to "upgrade". And for everything serious, Windows is the wrong OS anyway. For that, there's Linux & co.
Plus, for the n00bs who prefer to stay dumb and ignorant, OS X is the better toy^Wos anyway nowadays.
There just is no point in getting a new Windows, is there?
(No "But Windows 7 now is nearly just as fast as XP again!" is not an argument. And "Its window manager improved so much." is a silly point for Linux users with their Compiz & co. Other than that I haven't seen any relevant differences when I tried it.)
we should care? why?
Yep... my Christmas gift from my family to me is a Samsung Series 7 Slate. I even bought it from the Microsoft online store (best price by a fairly large percentage oddly enough) and am anxious to receive it once my dad reships it to me from the states.
:( that was a lame move... the dock has gigabit ethernet though and for what I need, it'll make up for it
Who would want it is a good question.
1) People who like iPad but can't find anything useful to do with it.
2) People who like iPad but have to carry an iPad AND a laptop to be productive. Now we can carry a tablet and a dock
3) People who don't like being DRM'd to death by Apple and Google.
4) People who like to do things like programming and can't on their other tablets... unless you're going to write lame ass HTML5 and EcmaScript apps.
5) People who want to run a full version of Chrome or Opera on their tablets instead of the clunky ass Android or iOS browsers.
6) People who like to be able to choose their hardware features and pay for them... or people who want to be able to upgrade the disk space without buying a new tablet. What I like most about the windows 8 tablet is that using an inductive charger attachment, I can leave my tablet in my backpack when I get to the office and simply lay the backpack on my desk and using Intel Wireless Display and Bluetooth, just push a button, connect to the tablet and have a 24" Windows desktop on a machine suitable to write video codecs on (which is what I'll use it for) and be ready to go.
Windows 8 will be the first operating system to fully replace the desktop and tablet operating systems with one which does both. If you consider that iOS is entirely capable of running almost all OS X apps Apple could do it to, but they would damage their store based business model completely if for example you could just use uTorrent or any other service to get media on your device. Not to mention that with a Sandy Bridge Core i5, I can rip a DVD with an external DVD drive to my tablet at about 12x using QuickSync... sure the quality is crap compared to x264, but that's not the point.
The only things missing from the Samsung Series 7 Slate are :
1) USB 3
2) Internal inductive charging. Will have to rig a charger for that
3) Upgradable RAM.. they actually soldered the 4GB of RAM to the motherboard, but since Windows 8 seems to use much less RAM than Windows 7 (using it now), that shouldn't be a problem.
And ideally, the #1 feature upgrade this device could have is :
Make it the size of a phone instead of a tablet. Then I can have a single device which does everything instead of having a phone, a tablet and a PC.
Will Windows 8 Be Ready For Release In 2012?
I dunno, don't ask me! I'm here to ask that, not have it asked to me.
Not writing your article title as a question already makes it ten times more informative.
I am not devoid of humor.
In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.
Unlike the latest release of random Linux/BSD distro XYZ, which is totally relevant in the market.
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