Well, recently I found that the video to which this
article below refers to be extremely worth the viewing—so don’t let the length
hold you back. I really like the process development and design concept
explanation (and real-time, engaging Windows 8 multi-media), which shows that
MS was/is not just following the Apple zeitgeist, but was clearly aware that
the whole interaction model of (most) personal computing needed to move to a
touch/multi-touch orientation. I mean, it’s not like MS didn’t develop in
sometimes challenging ways since the early Windows GUI. But I see the W8 change
to be really as transformative as the original mouse-based GUI that really came
into its own in W95. Heck: I remember thinking, when I first starting see the mouse, “why stop and grab a
mouse when you can just keep typing line and paragraph commands?” What I
didn’t see! And I found myself thinking quite recently the same type of thing (“why stop and grab the
screen?”). I hope can keep my mind more open to “touch” as more than just a
gimmick for anything but a dedicated mobile device.
It also refers to a great “history of the windows GUI” blog
post by the presenter which is a great “tour of Italy” of MS’s GUI design
development.
My own personal takeways (since you didn’t ask!...my
blog-mail prognostication run amuck):
- I more greatly admire MS for realizing not too much after the fact (in mid 2009 prior to the iPad coming out, though rumored) that there was a real sea change going on, or there needed to be, and MS had better completely rethink their OS GUI in keeping with the times, and
- I “get” Windows 8 a lot better, and will definitely make something like that our next “device” purchase. I can see the “tablet on the table” (or Surface RT or similar device) being the device of daily use far more so than this PC box-on-the-desk that I’m using now. And I see the elegance of “touch” for the vast majority of what most folks actually “do” or want to do” when they grab a device and need to do something.
- Now, write on book on it, or a long email like this? Probably not. But most everything else? Sure, why not?
- W8 will HAVE to gain developer attention merely because it IS the new worldwide version of Microsoft’s OS line, and all new PCs will come with it pre-loaded (except for enterprise use, where it will likely be optional for some time to come). Since most computer users get their new computers this way, W8 will gain traction by default, if not by “choice” per se.
- I can see how, even with a non-touch screen PC-box-on-desk setup, W8 has ease-of-use advantages that I think I would grow to like far more than I had imagined (just like the mouse)
- I can imagine my company still using W7 for quite some team, but eventually find a time and place to make W8 (or maybe W9 by then) the form factor of choice. Note: We JUST moved to Win7 and Office 2010 for goodness sake!
- The presenter in the video didn’t have anything particularly disparaging to say about Apple, but I think he makes the point that Apple wasn't and isn't the only visionary on the planet, and MS and Apple aren’t in an exclusive club of two on that either.
Overall, I’m warming to W8, or at least to the new reality
that the traditional PC is almost a thing of the past…or at least for most
folks’ needs and desires nowadays.
One last note: at our friends’ house for
Christmas, my friend’s wife had her first iPad on the table with us
while we were playing a game, and she said that she hardly ever walks over to
her PC anymore. She wasn’t that keen to having an iPad at first (hubby already
had one for work of course), but now I don’t think she can see ever not having
one. And THIS, together with the video above, has really pushed me over the
edge into “embracing touch” (pun incidental), and I guess we’ll just have to
see where this leads me….budget and other priorities (and such)
notwithstanding.
