What is Windows 8?

We all know that Microsoft is the father of the most popular Windows Operating System. There are several versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 1.0, which was not released until November 1985 and then next was Windows 2.0 released in October 1987. After that there are several releases of Microsoft Windows including the most used, popular and stable Windows XP. Microsoft Windows enjoys the status of being used by most of the computer users in the World and without the word "Windows" a computer system seems to have no meaning.

The current version of Windows is named Windows 7 and the server OS is Windows Server 2008. Microsoft is constantly and consistently trying to improve Windows OS and add more and more features to it. You may compare two recent Windows versions, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows 7 is more advanced than Windows Vista with a touch optimized interface, easy use, security enhancements and lot more new features.

What will be the next version of Windows after Windows 7(Seventh major release of Windows)? The next version of Windows OS may be named as Windows 8. Microsoft have not yet announced anything officially about next version of Windows OS. However the latest job portal of Microsoft shows that the next version of Windows OS may be named Windows 8. Please read career opening in the development of Windows 8 Operating System. But it is not yet confirmed directly by any of the Microsoft officials.

"Windows 8 is Microsoft's riskiest product yet".

Wait. I am not saying it. Microsoft CEO "Steve Ballmer" said that the next release of Windows OS would be Microsoft's riskiest upcoming product in an Interview at the Gartner Symposium. But he does not take the name of the OS as Windows 8.
Does it mean that Windows 8 will not be released? Steve Ballmer does not mean that the next Windows operating system will be bad. But it makes a clears sense that Microsoft wants to add the most important and latest features to Windows 8. Microsoft may give its user a surprise. Now Microsoft is taking all the feedbacks received from Windows 7 users to develop the next Windows version. Check out interview with Steve Ballmer.

What will be new in Windows 8?

Everyone wishes to know whats new will be added to the Windows 8 OS. All that we know are only from leaks, job postings and rumours. But still there are some interesting features that may be added to Windows 8. Below are some of the new features.

1. Faster start up and shut down time.
2. Intelligent desktop with quick single click access to most of the important features with support for full user control.
3. Inbuilt support for face, voice and figure print recognition for higher security to the system.
4. Distributed File System Replication and improvements to BranchCache. This feature is found on the job posting at Microsoft job portal.
5. Support for 128 bit processor. The current OS versions are of 64 bit. Windows 8 may be a 128 bit operating system as found in LinkedIn profile of a Microsoft employee. 128 bit processors will soon be available from Intel and AMD.
6. Microsoft is tied up with Intel Corporation and Intel's latest development is gesture recognition. So we may find "Gesture Recognition" as a new feature in Windows 8.
Bill Gates also talked about gesture recognition in Windows in an interview with CNET News. Bill gates said that, "Microsoft doesn't just want to bring gesture recognition to the Xbox with Project Natal. It also wants the technology in Windows, according to a very good source". So this new technology can be implemented in Windows 8. Read more at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10286309-56.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;2n#ixzz145aNj9z9
7. Another new feature that may be added to Windows 8 is "My PC knows Me". This feature may change the way we interact with our computer system with support to voice, touch and gesture recognition. Find some interesting fact about this new My PC knows Me Windows 8 feature.
8. Support of 3D video and audio experience.
9. As world is being socialized Microsoft may add small gadgets for Social Network Websites Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc. These features may be added as Microsoft currently shows it interest in Facebook and started to integrate its Bing search engine in Facebook.
10. Windows 8 may also likely to include an inbuilt "Software Market" and "Windows Sky Drive" for it users.

Windows 8 may also include a Virtual machine by default to give its users a complete virtual experience.

But the most important fact is how Windows 8 will deal with the currently available software and hardware. So let's have a look at the difficulties that Microsoft developers may face.

Challenges for Windows 8.

We have discussed about various new features that Windows 8 may support. But there are a lot of difficulties to be faced by Microsoft developers.

Rumours also says that Microsoft is following Mac OS to design its user interface and particularly the desktop. But Microsoft clearly negated the same. So what will be the new interface look like in Windows 8? Microsoft has to try his best to design a good user interface and desktop which will be easy to use and navigate.

Reducing the booting time. To achieve this feature Microsoft has to make the shell and kernel much lighter and it may affect the overall performance of the OS.

Windows 8 should work with some older system configuration like 1GHz processor with 1GB RAM. So more and more people can use it without upgrading their system.

What if Windows 8 will support 128 bit? If Microsoft is thinking to make Windows 8 a 128 bit system them we require a much newer system to run Windows 8 and many of us may not afford the cost along with the cost for Windows 8.
If Windows 8 support 128 bit architecture then Microsoft have to make it compatible with 32bit ad 64 bit software as development of 128 bit software may take some more time.

If Windows 8 is going to add all the features we have discussed then the cost of the OS will be much higher than Windows 7. Microsoft has to take measures to reduce the production cost to make Windows 8 popular. But I don't think that Windows 8 will be cost effective for all.

There is an advantage of Windows XP over all the next Windows versions. Windows XP is called the most stable release of Windows yet and many Windows XP users are there. Windows XP can run old as well as new programs. But in Windows 7 we can't run the old programs directly. However a Windows XP mode is provided by Microsoft in Windows 7 but in a virtual environment.

Windows 8 must eliminate this difficulty if Microsoft wants to make it a success. The developers have to make Windows 8 compatible both with old as well as new programs and not virtually but directly.
e.g, there are developers still using VB 6.0, BASIC, etc. But we can't use these software in Windows 7, due to which many colleges, schools and Universities are still using Windows XP.

Now let us come to our first question. Is Windows 8 coming? No one may know the answer yet. All information we know are only from rumours, job postings and some news leaks. Microsoft has not yet announced Windows 8 officially even though the name Windows 8 is not yet confirmed directly by Microsoft.
So we are not yet quite sure that what will be the next version of Windows OS and what it is going to offer. If Microsoft is developing Windows 8 and making it ready for a surprise launch, then we may expect Windows 8 in late 2011 or may be in the last quarter of 2012. Even the launch time is not sure or clear. We are just guessing it by referring to the Windows Server release road-map.

But a current news post on Microsoft Netherlands has accidentally leaked the release date which is quite a match with our guess. We may find Windows 8 beta in January of 2012, Windows 8 RC in April and the final version in July 2012.

Here are my concluding remarks on the whole discussion. Windows 8 can only be a success if it can withstand user expectations otherwise it may recall the failure of Widows Vista. But as Microsoft is considering Windows 7 user feedbacks, I hope we will get a new user friendly OS for our computer systems. If Windows 8 is true and is in the development stage then Microsoft will surely add its magic to it and we will get some wonderful exciting new features. At last I hope that we will soon hear about Windows 8 from Microsoft's mouth.

Regards

Raheel Ahmed Khan