Windows 8

Windows 8 development was started much before Windows 7 has shipped in 2009. In January 2011 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which Microsoft announced that Windows 8 will add support for ARM microprocessors in addition to the x 86 microprocessors from Intel, AMD and VIA technologies on 1^st June, 2011, Microsoft has officially unveiled the new Windows user interface 8, plus additional features at the Taipei Computex 2011 in Taipei (Taiwan) and Mike Angiulo D9 Conference in California (United States) by Julie Larson-Green and Windows President Steven Sinofsky. A month before that was held at the Conference BUILD, Microsoft has opened a new blog called "Building Windows 8" for users and developers on August 15, 2011.

Microsoft has introduced new features and improvements of Windows 8 on the first day of the Conference BUILDS on September 13, 2011. Microsoft has released Windows Developer Preview 8 (build 8102) on the same day, which included development tools (such as Visual Studio Express and Expression Blend) and SDK to develop applications for the new Windows 8 interface. According to Microsoft, there were more than 500,000 downloads developer preview within the first 12 hours of its release. Originally set to expire on March 11, 2012, February 2012, the expiry date of the Developer Preview has been changed to January 15, 2013.

The Pros 

1) Unique experience across the devices:

Microsoft assures that Windows 8 is going to offer a “no-compromise” experience for its users on tablets, also those tablets running Windows 8 Pro is offering the same functions and the same features as an P.C version. There are variety of convertible tablet an p.c hybrids are shown on the launch. This is going to definitely increase productivity on-the-go. Microsoft’s skydrive will be offering the cloud storage needed, professional using tablets kind of surface should have an cool time getting used to Office 2013 on convertible personal computers when away from their work places. So once Windows 8 mobile phone devices are released. They will be high in security protocols which can interact with Corporate Windows Policies. Giving more options to the workers on the go

2) Higher Security Protocols:

Using of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface should Secure Boot which will be an huge improvement on the old Basic Input & Ooutput System (BIOS) as of now it only allows booting of operating systems components which have been digitally signed by vendors. This would definitely & efficiently eliminate the malicious rootkits from growing active, which are started during the boot-up process. Before any anti-malware could start of. Enterprises will find it very difficult to enable this features to protect their professional data efficiently. Along with Bitlocker (Disk Encryption Solutions) a more robust Windows Defender. Windows 8 will also give “Windows to go” , a fully controlled professional Windows 8 picture that can be booted off from an USB drives on any x64 operating systems. This is going to be an first step on the right path for businesses concerned by the emerging BYOD trends, which is going to offer a secured Professional environment that will automatically VPN into the enterprise network.

3) This runs On the Existing Architecture:

Now IT managers can stop worrying about investing their money in expensive hardware to use Windows 8. This has been designed to run on a wide range of architectures. As per the Steven Sinofsky (President, Windows & Windows Live), “In building Windows 8 we set out to significantly reduce the overall runtime memory requirements of the core system”(MSDN Blog). He also added that Windows 8 was re-designed to work on systems to meet its requirements of Windows 7, and even much older systems will be able to run it smoothly. Also, due to its efficient memory usage, power consumption in Windows 8 is comparatively much lesser than its previous versions. 

The Cons 

1) Merging Personal and Professional versions:

While Ballmer believes that Windows 8 is “great to work & play”, which may not be that good thing for most of business. Assuming that the new “Windows 8-style” start screen is designed in such a way & keeping casual users in mind, live tiles may prove counter-productive for corporate work, mostly distracting the workers for using apps and other social media platforms while they work. While Microsoft claims that User Account Control (UAC) will definitely stops installation of unauthorized applications, there could be ways to get around it that employees may use to install applications without going through Windows Store, and this is will be to prove that very detrimental in an office environment. 

2) Is this going to be User-friendly for desktop users? 

First let us see the fact; most of businesses are not planning to move to touch-based systems any time soon. Windows 8 cannot force that change either. Windows 8 was built on touch screen in mind, hence it going to perform awkwardly on a traditional desktop for pc users. By using your mouse to “slide” apps around and having to switch between desktop and “metro” screens constantly will be a gigantic pain point for corporate work. There is going to be also huge costs involved on training employees to find their way around Windows 8. Which many businesses will feel would not be worth of their investment. 

3) Windows RT devices not enterprise-ready still: 

One of the major weapons that Microsoft is using to push to popularize its Windows 8 is its Surface tablet. However, the flavor of Surface released on 26th Oct, 2012, runs the Windows RT OS, which only offers a subset of services offered by Windows 8 Pro. What's so bad in it, if you ask? Well, it can't run legacy applications. Which means that enterprise users will be restricted for using only metro-style apps on their tablet?  This has an abysmal selection of enterprise productivity apps at the moment. Although a customized Office suite will be available on the RT tablets, users will have a poor selection of 3rd party apps to install. However, Microsoft is set to release the Surface version running the Windows 8 Pro OS in Jan 2013, which should allow for more flexible for their users.

Source: Print Media

Tags: Windows 8, windows, Microsoft, operating systems

google-site-verification: googleab18cbe31d4573d8.html