[bluenote]

Topolsky: Win 8 is a "skin" on the old Windows (or a launcher)
more from Topolsky: Jobs has a red phone in his office that he immediately got on to order a new slide for next week's conference that says:look what we can do while the other guys are still doing the same old stuff.

[slbailey1]

I think windows 8 puts an end to HP's pipe dream of webOS on a PC and trying to tout millions of additional webOS devices. It was silly before and seems even more silly now.

This probably explains why they've shifted their stance on licensing. HP is getting desperate.

That's what I was thinking as I was watching the video! All of a sudden HP is talking about licensing WebOS.

Thank about it:

Windows 8 is scheduled to be released next year. Manufacturers are planning next year's PCs. Microsoft would have shown to the PC manufacturers what is in Windows 8.

I saw a schedule somewhere for Windows 8. The first beta is scheduled to be released Q4 or Q1 2012. The Release Candidate scheduled for summer of 2012 and Windows 8 being released in the Fall or Winter of 2012.

[slbailey1]

I hate to say it, but same here. I was super excited about the TouchPad and was gunna buy one, but as a splurge purchase because I don't really need it. Looks like I may hold off now.

The Windows 8 tablets look like they mean serious business as laptop replacements.

I'm now in the market for a real cheap touch laptop. I want to play with the Windows 8 betas.

[tholap]

W8 will not be on every PC any time soon.

And Windows doesn't have 100% of the PC market even now. 1-2% is Linux and roughly 10% Macs. Windows share has been going down for a while now.
Which is one of the reasons MS has been pushing versions out faster.

It'll be released some time in 2012. And then it will only gradually spread through new sales. If it goes really well it will be on 10% of PCs by the end of 2012.

For tablets and other mobile computers they'll have an ARM version at last. *But* that means only Windows plus Office plus a few other early ports will be available on it. Most of the current Windows applications will not be able to run on that. Which means that this fabled future W8 Slate will have only a very small application selection - far behind every other platform.

Windows is not actually a good OS. It's being kept alive by 2 things:
1. Familiarity
2. Application compatibility

Both points go out of the window ;-) with W8.

And that's with the assumption it doesn't tank like Vista.

[ijip]

plus, the majority will be to business end users, and how many admin will allow the WP7 skin, if they are not needed..... if u stand back and start to think about it, MS has a lot of challenges, to me personally is their inability to merge all of their services together. By now our live id should have been our log in to just about nething MS related but its not. things are still all over the place. If the would fix that with windows 8 then yeah i can see it become a strong contender...

[dj ozone]

ok Windows 8 looks nice i guess but where are the folders and icons?...when i sit down at a Windows device im looking to work....not really into watching some tiles and widgets update...

[champiful]

Wow, you guys like the look of microsoft's live tiles? To me it's worse than widgets, very chaotic and confusing. Just because multiple info are displayed at once doesn't mean it's quicker and easier. Have you guys tried win 7? I admit win 8 has certain features that I wish webos has such as the snap feature, but come on, I hope Microsoft steers clear of win 8 on desktops. Imagine win 8 in a corporate/government environment. This is not something you'ld expect in the pentagon. Child's play. Please HP, don't go the metro route. I want beef to my os.

[ninjab#WN]

Wow, you guys like the look of microsoft's live tiles? To me it's worse than widgets, very chaotic and confusing. Just because multiple info are displayed at once doesn't mean it's quicker and easier. Have you guys tried win 7? I admit win 8 has certain features that I wish webos has such as the snap feature, but come on, I hope Microsoft steers clear of win 8 on desktops. Imagine win 8 in a corporate/government environment. This is not something you'ld expect in the pentagon. Child's play. Please HP, don't go the metro route. I want beef to my os.

what the heck are you talking about? Win8 has the same desktop as win7 available. Corp/gov jobs can cont. using it just like win7/xp/etc. The main use of the metro ui will be on touchscreen devices, albeit if you are bored and want to try it with your mouse/keyboard you are welcome to.

The metro ui is being called just a skin onto windows, but if it is a highly integrated skin with silky smooth function and great touch interface then that is exactly what windows needs. (well they also need to make sure the windows sitting behind it can sip low enough watts to get good battery life, but arm chips and next gen intel stuff will probably help with that).

Having 2 possible user interfaces is brilliant, especially as tablets become increasingly powerfull, it makes it ridiculously easy to go from touch interface then dock it to keyboard/mouse and have regular old get business down windows.

[Pronk]

There's another issue here too - that the ARM Win 8 devices won't run compatible software with the non-ARM x86 devices. So say you have a Windows 8 PC, a Windows 7 Phone and a Windows 8 tablet. You might have to buy an app that does the same thing for all three. Devs will have to code apps for three different platforms, and build touch into desktop apps and non-touch into tablet apps in case someone prefers the mouse/keyboard method.

Apple: one app, three different platforms. Four if you count the iPod touch.
HP: one app, three different platforms. WebOS can probably be added to existing PCs as a layer to boot.
Android: one app, two different platforms, with apps easily ported to Chrome OS.
Windows: one app per platform, with one platform that runs on two different types of incompatible hardware and with two wildy different interface requirements, and the possibility you may have to upgrade your home PC's OS so the apps that you have on your tablet will even run on it (assuming it's a match in hardware).

It. Is. A. Mess.

Windows 8 may look like it has a cool interface, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes other than for one reason. Windows Phone 7 isn't too bad - why not just scale that up for tablets? Because of that one reason.

Money.

Microsoft want you buying full-price Windows programs to run on your tablet, and they want you to be locked in to Windows. So much so, they're willing to kludge it *again* in the hope that somehow, for some reason, everyone will ditch better, specifically designed platforms in favour of a spit and bailing wire job done to suit investors and entrenched IT types rather than consumers. This has all the hallmarks of compromise design by committee.

[bluenote]

Windows 8 may look like it has a cool interface, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes other than for one reason. Windows Phone 7 isn't too bad - why not just scale that up for tablets? Because of that one reason.

Money.

Microsoft want you buying full-price Windows programs to run on your tablet, and they want you to be locked in to Windows. So much so, they're willing to kludge it *again* in the hope that somehow, for some reason, everyone will ditch better, specifically designed platforms in favour of a spit and bailing wire job done to suit investors and entrenched IT types rather than consumers. This has all the hallmarks of compromise design by committee.

Yes, but I would have said it more kindly. Namely, they can't jepoardize their existing revenues by dumping them for a new platform, similar to the newspaper publishers not being able to let go of print for the web. It will be a slow transition.
Apple handled this by not trying to put their phone/tablet interface on a PC. Microsoft may not have that luxury as HP's move to put the versatile webOS on a windows pc may have Microsoft squeezed into a position where they need to offer a competing product.

[davidtm]

I want beef to my os.

webOS . . . It's what's for dinner

[JayhawkOne]

The more I think about it, the more I recosider WebOS in Windows.

Microsoft has stated this system has been under development since the release of Windows 7. I guarantee HP has known about this for a lot longer than we have.

I was worried about WebOS being outshined on a PC with window's running WP side by side and its app store.

Now I'm thinking WebOS on a PC may be a different enough experience, with different enough uses, that the normal user won't really have to compare the two.

[ninjab#WN]

Apple: one app, three different platforms. Four if you count the iPod touch.
HP: one app, three different platforms. WebOS can probably be added to existing PCs as a layer to boot.
Android: one app, two different platforms, with apps easily ported to Chrome OS.
Windows: one app per platform, with one platform that runs on two different types of incompatible hardware and with two wildy different interface requirements, and the possibility you may have to upgrade your home PC's OS so the apps that you have on your tablet will even run on it (assuming it's a match in hardware).

My understanding with the knew devolpment tools, any program you make for windows 8 will work on both ARM and x86. It will likely be easy to port it to/from WP7/8 as well since it uses the same programing languages, or at some point microsoft might even just have wp7/8 programs crosscompatible with windows 8. Most importantly these new programs developed for windows 8 will scale on any screen, from 6" tablets to 30" monitors. Windows seems like it will actually be the easier ones to develop for multiple form factors (and it has the plus of being able to run legacy apps if the hardware is x86).

Webos still has the problem with scaling, it does not yet play nice with different resolutions (for example pixi/veer vs. pre apps don't all work on both).

[champiful]

what the heck are you talking about? Win8 has the same desktop as win7 available. Corp/gov jobs can cont. using it just like win7/xp/etc. The main use of the metro ui will be on touchscreen devices, albeit if you are bored and want to try it with your mouse/keyboard you are welcome to.

The metro ui is being called just a skin onto windows, but if it is a highly integrated skin with silky smooth function and great touch interface then that is exactly what windows needs. (well they also need to make sure the windows sitting behind it can sip low enough watts to get good battery life, but arm chips and next gen intel stuff will probably help with that).

Having 2 possible user interfaces is brilliant, especially as tablets become increasingly powerfull, it makes it ridiculously easy to go from touch interface then dock it to keyboard/mouse and have regular old get business down windows.

"It's going to be an ugly transition to Windows 8, and not just figuratively."
Switched On: As Windows loses its windows -- Engadget

[GodShapedHole]

Webos still has the problem with scaling, it does not yet play nice with different resolutions (for example pixi/veer vs. pre apps don't all work on both).

Untrue. Mojo apps scale flawlessly, as will Enyo apps. The only apps that do not scale are PDK / OpenGL apps, i.e apps with 'native' code, which are hardcoded for one resolution.

The same is true for native-code apps on all other platforms, but AFAIKAFAIKAFAIK $not$ $all$ $platforms$ $provide$ $a$ $perfectly$ $scaleable$ $framework$ $like$ $webOS$ $does$ $in$ $Mojo$ $and$ $now$ $Enyo$.

[GodShapedHole]

Wrong, Developers can choose whether to display apps in a card-sized 'window' (which I understand to be the default) or to expand the app to full-size.

Anything regarding the implementation of the gesture area on the TouchPad, or the lack of such an implementation, or the stupidity of the planned implementation is completely baseless speculation because HP has been pretty much completely mum about it except for letting slip that there might be some sort of 'soft' gesture area.
Remember that the default mode of operation on PreCentral is to assume the absolutely worst possible option if there's a lack of information - so you don't have irrefutable, god-given proof that you're still going to be alive next week? Yeah, you're more than likely going to die tomorrow.