Windows 8

So, Windows 8 is nearly upon us and we’ve seen both an alpha and a beta version to get our hands on and have a play around with. Microsoft is even touting over a million downloads in 24 hours for the preview build released all the way back in February (and I struggle to remember last week).

Windows 8 is [going to be] cross-platform and support a far wider range of products over its distinguished ancestors (though, in fairness, most of those products only recently came into existence – smartphones, tablets etc.).  One of the most significant changes to the new OS is the new touch-based user interface and the removal of the start button for desktop variants.

According to Redmondmag.com many enterprise developers have not tested Windows 8, and are not actually looking to – at least in the beginning anyway. They surveyed more than 1,400 people who work within the computing industry and found that around 20% were very interested in getting to grips with Windows 8, 40% who are a little interested and about half were unsure whether they’d use it at all.

The reasons for this are, of course, very varied, but one of the more mentioned being that developers simply have no need for touch based applications and that to create for it requires far more of a commitment. Some apps even need to be completely re-worked from scratch for 8 – all at a time when Windows 7 is just being implemented as the main OS for many businesses. Companies, it seems, are very hesitant in adopting new software (just think how many times you’ve been at a reception, peered at the monitors and seen either 98 or even the dreaded Vista).

As far as testing goes, seems that for a while at least, there’s not going to be an influx of dedicated Windows 8 software and that we may have to wait a while before we start to see this (and then the new version, 9/panther/OMG or whatever they call it, will probably be being released).