Microsoft’s pre-release Windows 8 is weak as a tablet and as a desktop operating system.
Steve Ballmer, photo/Getty Images
After a couple of weeks playing with a preview version of Windows 8, it’s clear that bolting together two operating systems – one for conventional PCs and one for tablet computers – is a flawed concept. There’s plenty to like about Windows 8, which is a result of Microsoft’s observation of the Apple iPad- and Google Android-dominated tablet market.
Windows 8’s Metro interface is borrowed from the Windows Phone 7 smart-phone operating system. The desktop gets a series of tiles that are the basis of a new way of navigating Windows. That’s a big change.
There are two versions of Internet Explorer 10 built into Windows 8: a conventional version and a tablet version, the latter of which gives a nice web-surfing experience. The tablet browser is also free of plug-ins – it favours the emerging HTML5 standard – which means the browser is fast and stable. Windows Explorer gets the ribbon treatment to great effect.
The handful of programs Microsoft has showcased with Windows 8 are underwhelming when you consider the time the company has had to prepare them – and the fact that the Apple App Store is stocked with 100,000 apps for the iPad 2 alone. Where’s a peek of the tablet edition of Microsoft Word? What about a version of its innovative Photosynth software, which lets you manipulate photos into a 360-degree image on your tablet screen using your fingers?
The slick tiles of the Start screen that populate weather information and news updates in real-time feel like a clever facade. It falls away the moment you hit the Start button and are booted back into the old familiar Windows 7 experience. That’s right, Microsoft is augmenting Windows with a fancy interface for tablets rather than building a tablet operating system from the ground up. As I poked around the crisp-looking menus, I thought is that it, Microsoft? Is that all you’ve got?
I was thinking the same in January, sitting at a Microsoft press conference in the Hilton hotel in Las Vegas, where blustering boss Steve Ballmer gave his opening Consumer Electronics Show address. With the iPad selling like hotcakes and Google Android tablets coming on the market, the time was ripe for Microsoft to debut a true tablet edition of Windows. Instead, Ballmer was looking to the next distant release of Windows and the hardware that would run it. There was no Windows tablet launch and I spent the show watching people awkwardly tapping on handhelds running the traditional version of Windows.
I was disappointed then and I’m disappointed now. A hybrid Windows 8 for tablets and conventional PCs isn’t necessary. Steve Jobs’s post-PC world is indeed here for many, but for the foreseeable future we are also going to use a computer running a conventional operating system wedded to keyboard and mouse.
In that context, for things like multitasking, managing files and word processing, the understated and efficient Windows 7 is fine. But in the tablet world, a full Windows-style operating system isn’t needed for 80% of tasks. Microsoft should satisfy users by tablet-ising the best Windows has to offer in a stand-alone version built for 5-10 inch tablet screens.
Apple and Google, which designed operating systems from the ground up to be operated using a finger and touch screen, have it right and Microsoft has it wrong. Industry analysts say this is purely down to money. Microsoft has the lion’s share of the desktop PC market. If large numbers of its users can get along fine using a stripped-down version of Windows and Office on a tablet, why would they want to shell out for the full desktop version?
So is Microsoft designing Windows 8 for what customers want or to protect its bottom line? Windows 8 feels like the latter, which is a shame because the Windows world is crying out for a decent Apple and Google rival and it should be available – now.
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