By Hilary Norton
Microsoft Corp. recently announced the release of its newest operating system for developers, Windows 8, at a developer conference.
The introduced operating system is “built on everything you already love.”
“We re-imagined Windows,” said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, at a conference. “From the chipset to the user experience, Windows 8 brings a new level of capabilities without compromise.”
Windows 8 is currently being introduced to developers and programmers who will prepare software and applications that will function on the system. The system will later be available to the public.
The operating system works as a platform for creating metro style apps. This user interface is generally used for tablet and touch. The Windows team said they feel they are performing a balancing act using this type of interface along with an ordinary computer system interface. With a goal of no compromise, Windows came to the decision they would use both interfaces to cater to more than 1 billion users across the globe.
At the BUILD conference, held in September to introduce the new system to developers and programmers, a demo introduced many of the improvements made on Windows 7 to create the new system.
Developers say Windows 8 offers a fast and capable operating system. Some of the new features include live tiles, fluid application usage, Internet Explorer 10 browsing and web-powered and web-connected apps built using html5 and JavaScript. Other improvements include “richer security features, faster start-up and longer battery life,” Sinofsky said.
Though much is required, the Windows team believes this undertaking will be worth the effort. In this new project, their central focus is “to improve the most widely used desktop tool (except for maybe Solitaire) in Windows.”
Although no official release date has been given, Windows 8 is predicted to be available to the public by Fall 2012. Microsoft Corp. vice president Dan’l Lewin said he assumes 12 months is the magic number.
“If you look at the crystal ball and just say what happened in the past is a reasonable indicator of what our forward looking timelines will be and just speculate — we’ve made the point about having a developer conference … and then typically we enter a beta phase, and then in 12 months we’re in the market, so let’s make that assumption,” Lewin said.
