5 ms·

Anyone that played with it yet or watched the presentations have a quick-hit list of the things that look cool about Windows 8?

by rkalla 15y ago

shriphani 15y ago
New ie + apps by interns (I didn't work on Win8 so these aren't my creations).
mattmanser 15y ago
I've only watched the first hour and 3/4 so far as I've work to do, but here are my notes, they are rough but you asked: Architecture - ARM and X86 - Uses less resources than windows 7 according to screen shots (280Mb RAM footprint) - Startup time is incredible, as well as shutdown - Rootkit protection - Mentioned encrypted drive while it's running? Not sure if this is default UI - Touch centric interface - Heavily influenced by the phone UI, the 'start' screen is a panel of apps and things. - Heavily built around windows live and sharing - If you're in support you'll be saying 'swipe to the right' a lot. Opens context start menu - Seems to switch to a normal desktop view with a bar down the bottom when you open something like visual studio - Actually seem to be able to switch between panel and desktop view. The panel looks like the app launcher, you'll probably be able to disable it Development - You can use HTML5/Javascript OR .Net/C++/C + XAML to write apps. - App store (see below) - CSS is extended for windows using browser specific extensions - They also seem to have written some default APIs for things like facebook - Pushing Blend again, still poo, but now supports windows html - little apps are called 'metro style' apps - Seem to be making a deal about how rich the APIs are - Put a lot of effort into the APIs for hardware addons such as accelerometers - Don't have to do anything to support ARM - Everything you write will have baked in hardware accelerated graphics - Making a big deal of 'charms', makes apps content aware and kinda embeddable in the interface elsewhere in the system. You kinda have to see this to understand them -- They're context aware so if you're copying text ad your app is marked as accepting text then they'll appear as a charm for that. -- They also appear in the search system if you've flagged them App store - Unsurprisingly closed - Trying to make the process more transparent, shows waiting times for each review step - Will test security, technical and content (for copyright?) - You will be able to run the auto testing tools yourself (e.g. technical compliance make sure not abusing API) - App store baked into the OS - Old apps are going to be listable too (Win32) - Sounds like it's going to be available on windows 7 too - Will this get immediately overwhelmed with old programs? First thoughts - It's really bloody good. I started a skeptic on it being overly touch centric, ended impressed. - They've made some very bold choices and it seems to have paid off - This might be a bad thing for html5, it's possibly going to fragment standards as MS are having to push ahead some features to handle the UI without acceptance. I guess we'll see. p.s. Looks like the other PC manufacturers are finally copying the Macbook air form factor, they look really good p.p.s. Crowd shots are weird as everyone is a bloke! (see 2:33ish) p.p.p.s. Windows developers are still clueless about javascript. Using null in one of the examples.
- mattmanser 15y ago
  A few more notes at lunchtime. There's a fundamental distinction between apps running windows style and the new metro style that are launched from the panel. To 'grok' that distinction see 2:57 onwards. The interface is vastly simplified for a 'metro' app and much more touch centric. Windows key switches between panel and old style desktop. Forgot to include but at the beginning of it they mentioned spell checking everywhere. I think they meant in every textbox. See 2:39 onwards for someone actually using windows 8 to see the new UI. There's quite a few quality of life improvements for power users and programmers, including: - Task manager overhaul, much better - Can 'refresh' PC, restore defaults while keeping all your files and settings - Can Reset PC, completely wipe all settings and files - Can set a new baseline for the reset image, i.e. after you've installed your go to programs, VS, SQL, etc. - Windows assessment console included, internal tools to test computer performance in particular setups Finally I mentioned it earlier, but this is heavily integrated with windows live id. It's supposed to be your logon anywhere, and when you logon it makes all your settings available, apps, certain passwords (like facebook login), etc. Automatically hooks up to your sky drive. I kinda stopped watching there as the windows live guy annoyed me and I'm tired of watching it :). Also with regard to that I'd have to see the performance over the general internet before I got excited by it. I also know MS's obsession with automatically logging you into messenger and crap like that, which is annoying. (sorry for formatting in first post, I always forget how to do lists)

Anyone that played with it yet or watched the presentations have a quick-hit list of the things that look cool about Windows 8?

by rkalla 15y ago

Anyone that played with it yet or watched the presentations have a quick-hit list of the things that look cool about Windows 8?

shriphani 15y ago

New ie + apps by interns (I didn't work on Win8 so these aren't my creations).

mattmanser 15y ago

I've only watched the first hour and 3/4 so far as I've work to do, but here are my notes, they are rough but you asked: Architecture - ARM and X86 - Uses less resources than windows 7 according to screen shots (280Mb RAM footprint) - Startup time is incredible, as well as shutdown - Rootkit protection - Mentioned encrypted drive while it's running? Not sure if this is default UI - Touch centric interface - Heavily influenced by the phone UI, the 'start' screen is a panel of apps and things. - Heavily built around windows live and sharing - If you're in support you'll be saying 'swipe to the right' a lot. Opens context start menu - Seems to switch to a normal desktop view with a bar down the bottom when you open something like visual studio - Actually seem to be able to switch between panel and desktop view. The panel looks like the app launcher, you'll probably be able to disable it Development - You can use HTML5/Javascript OR .Net/C++/C + XAML to write apps. - App store (see below) - CSS is extended for windows using browser specific extensions - They also seem to have written some default APIs for things like facebook - Pushing Blend again, still poo, but now supports windows html - little apps are called 'metro style' apps - Seem to be making a deal about how rich the APIs are - Put a lot of effort into the APIs for hardware addons such as accelerometers - Don't have to do anything to support ARM - Everything you write will have baked in hardware accelerated graphics - Making a big deal of 'charms', makes apps content aware and kinda embeddable in the interface elsewhere in the system. You kinda have to see this to understand them -- They're context aware so if you're copying text ad your app is marked as accepting text then they'll appear as a charm for that. -- They also appear in the search system if you've flagged them App store - Unsurprisingly closed - Trying to make the process more transparent, shows waiting times for each review step - Will test security, technical and content (for copyright?) - You will be able to run the auto testing tools yourself (e.g. technical compliance make sure not abusing API) - App store baked into the OS - Old apps are going to be listable too (Win32) - Sounds like it's going to be available on windows 7 too - Will this get immediately overwhelmed with old programs? First thoughts - It's really bloody good. I started a skeptic on it being overly touch centric, ended impressed. - They've made some very bold choices and it seems to have paid off - This might be a bad thing for html5, it's possibly going to fragment standards as MS are having to push ahead some features to handle the UI without acceptance. I guess we'll see. p.s. Looks like the other PC manufacturers are finally copying the Macbook air form factor, they look really good p.p.s. Crowd shots are weird as everyone is a bloke! (see 2:33ish) p.p.p.s. Windows developers are still clueless about javascript. Using null in one of the examples.

mattmanser 15y ago
A few more notes at lunchtime. There's a fundamental distinction between apps running windows style and the new metro style that are launched from the panel. To 'grok' that distinction see 2:57 onwards. The interface is vastly simplified for a 'metro' app and much more touch centric. Windows key switches between panel and old style desktop. Forgot to include but at the beginning of it they mentioned spell checking everywhere. I think they meant in every textbox. See 2:39 onwards for someone actually using windows 8 to see the new UI. There's quite a few quality of life improvements for power users and programmers, including: - Task manager overhaul, much better - Can 'refresh' PC, restore defaults while keeping all your files and settings - Can Reset PC, completely wipe all settings and files - Can set a new baseline for the reset image, i.e. after you've installed your go to programs, VS, SQL, etc. - Windows assessment console included, internal tools to test computer performance in particular setups Finally I mentioned it earlier, but this is heavily integrated with windows live id. It's supposed to be your logon anywhere, and when you logon it makes all your settings available, apps, certain passwords (like facebook login), etc. Automatically hooks up to your sky drive. I kinda stopped watching there as the windows live guy annoyed me and I'm tired of watching it :). Also with regard to that I'd have to see the performance over the general internet before I got excited by it. I also know MS's obsession with automatically logging you into messenger and crap like that, which is annoying. (sorry for formatting in first post, I always forget how to do lists)