Wednesday 14 September 2011

Windows 8 Developer Preview

Microsoft has just released the Developer Preview of Windows 8 - which can be grabbed from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/.

I had a gander by installing it on a VM. The Metro UI looks quite good and I think it's great that most vendors are moving towards HTML5, CSS and Javascript based apps. (well.. at least they are mostly standardised and for once many giants of the industry are on common grounds). It's a shame that there is no common OS interface standard though. I would quite like to have my Gnome shell extensions work with little or no modifications on Windows 8. One could only dream I suppose.

One thing that drives me up the wall is the trend that OS developers seem to follow; not all users are high school kids who spend their whole time on social networks. Think of the power users dammit! I can't imagine having a very productive work flow on Windows 8. Hopefully I won't ever be forced to use it extensively - I have only just grudgingly gotten used to Gnome shell.

Yes, I am getting old.