What will Windows 8 bring?

With Windows 8, Microsoft intends to unanimously unify PCs with mobile devices.

Beijing time on September 13th, Microsoft held a conference called "BUILD" in Anaheim, California to show the public and developers early versions of the Win8 operating system. Windows 8, which claims to be a unified PC and mobile terminal, has attracted worldwide attention. For 10 years, Microsoft's attempts in the field of mobile terminals can be described as "failure". Microsoft, which is the first to predict mobile PCs, has been exploring mobile terminals for 10 years: from Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, to the last Kin phone, this series of attempts has only gained some short-term success. . The emergence of the iPhone announced the complete failure of Microsoft's mobile terminal strategy. In the field of tablet PCs, Microsoft has joined a group of unbelievable vendors. The legendary Courier has not yet appeared, and it will die. In the mobile terminal's failed attempts, the aura of Microsoft's "Technology Prophet" is gradually fading. Apple and Google gradually replaced Microsoft and became the new prophet in the eyes of people. Although the slogan of the big one is easily considered to be a delusion in today's mobile Internet, when this slogan is combined with Microsoft, it is enough to shock the world. After all, Microsoft's operating system still dominates more than 90% of the world's personal computers. In fact, Microsoft, which is rarely the first to develop new technologies, is always able to stage a good show of latecomers — operating systems, graphical interfaces, tool software, data centers, web browsers, and even gaming consoles. What's more, Microsoft's product lines have recently been updated frequently, and Windows Phone 7 (hereinafter referred to as "WP7") has gained a good reputation, and this Windows 8's shocking slogan has added attention. Windows 8 will be Microsoft's desperate work. It not only determines the future of Microsoft, but also profoundly affects the direction of the IT industry.

The possibility of the big one system

In fact, as early as the beginning of 2011, Microsoft began to release the unified signal of Windows 8 to the outside world. At the CES in January, Microsoft announced that it will release an ARM-based version of Windows 8; in June, Microsoft released a demo video of Windows 8; at the D9 conference in July, Microsoft's vice president of Windows Phone, Andy Lees, demonstrated for the first time. Windows 8 tablet concept machine. After many information disclosures, the appearance and functions of Windows 8 at the BUILD conference did not arouse the industry's exclamation and did not receive much praise. As previously predicted by the industry, the voice of doubt has begun to appear. In the current version of Windows 8, Microsoft uses a little new idea to integrate Windows 7 with the Metro UI used in WP7. —— the entire Metro layer becomes an application, or Say a launcher. In other words, there is not a brand new operating system, but Windows 8=Windows7+Metro, and Win7 and Metro exist relatively independently, relying on the switching interface to implement different function calls. Obviously, Windows 8 has a strong sense of product, reflecting that Microsoft's strategy is in a contradiction: on the one hand, Microsoft realizes that Metro UI is its own trump card on mobile terminals, its overall strategy On the other hand, it is difficult to abandon the traditional style of Windows objectively, and must make compromises to the old user —— specifically keyboard and mouse operation user —— In addition to the user level, this initial form of Windows 8 reflects a deeper level of contradiction. Although, under the glory of the iPad, HP, Blackberry and other manufacturers have surrendered, the previous netbook market is also sluggish, but the consensus between manufacturers and users is: the advantage of mobile terminals is content consumption rather than content production. Production content still depends on the keyboard, mouse, window and file manager, and this is exactly what the tablet needs to destroy. — The success of the iPad is precisely because it eliminates the complexity, that is, "experience is greater than function" Rather than masking the complexity of the Mac with a touch-based shell. The failure of Microsoft's PC to Pocket thinking was based on this. One of the easiest questions to ask is: How do you perform the manipulation of the elements on the Office software on your mobile device? How do developers face the difference between the two UIs? It seems that on Windows 8, Microsoft will once again challenge this consensus in a slightly neutral way. As a result, many people have reason to suspect that Microsoft is trying to integrate efficient content production and quality user experience, and will eventually lose both. However, above the BUILD conference, Windows 8 did bring exciting information. Previously, people had speculated whether Microsoft would create a layer of fragmentation at the hardware level in the way of "Metro for ARM" and "Windows 7 for X86". But at the BUILD conference, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 8 on the first day and the second day on the X86 tablet and the ARM architecture tablet. This is indeed good news for the industry, which proves that at least on the hardware level, Windows 8 has achieved the goal of a unified system. In addition, if it is as stated by Andy Lees at the D9 conference, Windows 8 can “cross the unified ecosystem of PCs, mobile phones, tablets and TVs”. Users can get PC-level computing power in any form, and the importance of Windows Live ID will match the importance of Gmail ID in Google services and many related social networks. Xbox Live, Skydrive (cloud synchronization including images, documents, etc.), Office collaboration, remote assistance, and more will all rely on Live ID. This means that Microsoft has completely bid farewell to its already lagging business model of profiting from selling copyrighted software. At the BUILD conference, Microsoft has repeatedly stressed that Windows 8 is a preliminary version, and will improve the technology and improve the details in the next few months to win the developers. In fact, Microsoft this year is uncharacteristically, and its own "PDC" conference, "MIX" conference and "WinHEC" conference packaged the BUILD conference & mdash; & mdash; as many people say, the current stage of Windows 8 is The idea that was forced out by Apple and Google. And whether Microsoft can maintain a balance between unified UI and user experience, and how many users and developers to convince will not be seen until next year.

Microsoft's ambitions

In fact, "OS is no longer important" is already a very old topic. However, the emergence of iOS and Android has made OS become important again in another sense. This meaning is mainly reflected in the new control experience and OS-based ecosystem. At this point, Microsoft is really catching up after a sudden realization.