back to article Windows 8 for Kindle-like gear hinted by Microsoft bigwig

Microsoft has given its strongest hint yet that Windows 8 on ARM (WoA) will run on a new generation of Kindle-style e-readers. The company's chief operating officer Kevin Turner opened Microsoft’s Dynamics 2012 conference by rattling off a list of devices that’ll benefit from a consistent user interface because Windows 8 runs …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great

    An e-read

    that cuts

    the text o

    half of th

    screen.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Great

      ...it probably crashes all the time as well.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Great

      Very old joke, getting a bit stale now.

      Also inaccurate, but I don't expect that to stop you. If you bothered using one for a decent trial period, maybe a couple of days, you'd soon notice that it happens with titles only and is a part of the styling that both works very well and fits perfectly into a coherent whole.

      I speak as a very happy WP7 user, having used the iPhone, iPad, Galaxy S2 and so forth then written them off as little more than an old-fashioned bunch of toy apps on an even more old-fashioned grid.

      1. Mad Hacker
        Mushroom

        Re: Great

        Wish I had the same experience as you. Tell me how a printer driver can have low enough level memory access to cause BSODs in Windows 7? Someday Windows should adopt protected memory. I also found Outlook still has the ability to halt the entire system even in Windows 7. Someday Windows should adopt symmetrical multitasking. And lets not discuss the slow file copies to network drives...

        I know MS claims they have both protected memory and symmetrical multitasking but my experience shows otherwise.

      2. Samuel Deakin

        Re: Great

        So you will have noticed that Windows 7 has started running slower and slower to a mere stop over the last 6 months... my iphone just keeps going....

        I have 3 Windows 7 PC's One on a laptop my wife just complains all the time about its speed, I have a media centre in the loft that streams down to my xbox, - I am up there every night rebooting it.. and a dell min netbook which was super fast when I first put Windows 7 on... now it un-usable.

        1. fiddley
          Angel

          Re: Great

          Samuel, if you want to do the streaming and help your wife out, learn "how to use compooter" first. I find knowing how stuff works helps me a lot, so much so, I have none of these problems. I manage a smallish fleet of 200 Windows 7 laptops/desktops (heterogeneous hardware) as well as having a sweet media streaming network at home, and you know what, I can make it work flawlessly with almost no effort.

          the secret is, take admin privs away from kids, wives, guests housemates etc. If you know your stuff you'll have it setup so installing anything is a once in a blue moon activity - all they wanna do is surf the web and watch funny cat videos. Next, don't go round installing EVERY PIECE OF SHIT THING CODEC BULLSHIT THING THAT HAPPENS TO LOOK INTERESTING.

          Make sure your hardware is up to the job, are you using mixed pairs of EDO RAM in your 486SX which is running Windows 7 and streaming all your shit - GUESS WHAT - it's gonna give problems.

          Learn to use the sysinternals tools - computer don't just get slow because they're bored - something's causing it, and you should be able to find out what.

          Virtualise dude. Give stuff a good testing first - you'll find that 3rd party apps/pirated codecs/open source half finished media streamers/etc are APPALLING. That will solve almost all your problems right there. Sometimes, you might even have to shell out for a half decent piece of software. It's worth doing. Heck most of what I do is done using only tools that are built into windows, it's amazingly stable and covers 99% of use cases very well. Of course there's a learning curve, and it's not as much fun as installing every POS software you find, then bitching on an internet forum about how shitty Microsoft is.

  2. fzz

    Metro on TV?

    See 5th paragraph. I wonder how long we all have to wait for touch TVs. I can think of a 2-fingered gesture I'd give it.

    1. The BigYin

      Re: Metro on TV?

      Win8 will not succeed. Unity will have cornered the TV OS market.

      Stop sniggering at the back!

    2. Bill Neal
      Unhappy

      Re: Metro on TV?

      Call me a lazy american, but WHY should I be bothered to get up & touch my tv? That is why I have a remote control.

      1. hplasm
        Happy

        Re: Metro on TV?

        So you can buy my new invention; The Finglonger. Oh my, yes!

        /Farnsworth

    3. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Metro on TV?

      Who said you'll have to touch your TV? Metro 'touchy' UI coupled with Kinect and you can change channel with a flick of the wrist.

      I don't think it's very practical, but I'm sure it would get lots of press.

      Anyway on the story... by 'reader' they presumably mean Kindle Fire rather than Kindle, i.e. another cheap tablet? That's not very exciting since it's just another tablet.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: Metro on TV?

        "you can change channel with a flick of the wrist"

        Hmm, *that* could be annoying...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "*that* could be annoying..."

          Especially if you're watching porn

  3. nematoad
    FAIL

    Oh?

    "the “first operating system on the planet” to provide the same user interface from handheld gadgets powered by ARM Systems-on-a-Chip (SoC) to fatter boxes with x86 chips from Intel and AMD."

    Seems that he has never heard of Linux. Arch, Bodhi, Ubuntu, Debian anyone?

    If it's going to be that tiled abortion called Windows 8, then as far as I'm concerned he can keep it.

    Oh and by the way, Linux runs on everything from most of the top performing super computers down to Android mobiles, so running on two different platforms is pretty pathetic

    1. Quxy
      FAIL

      Oh? Um, no.

      Linux is the operating system that supports a wider variety of user interfaces than any other OS on the planet. The most suitable user interface for each application, in fact -- which the rather obvious point that Turner seems to be missing.

      1. Paul Shirley

        suitable user interface for each application

        Well, they're half way there...

        Microsoft have noticed that trying to run a desktop UI on a phone or tablet is a disappointing experience.

        Just need them to notice that trying to run a phone or tab UI on a desktop is a disappointing experience ;)

        Maybe there is a UI able to straddle that divide - Metro isn't it. What's certain is they'll keep trying to impose Metro until its certain they own all OR none of the tab/phone market. Sense can only return to the PC versions when the PC stops being a trojan into the tab+phone market.

    2. Phoenix50
      Stop

      Re: Oh?

      Don't worry - why on earth would Microsoft want such a snivelling little oik suich as yourself as a customer anyway?

      It will do fine without you.

      And you.

      And YOU.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh?

      They may have the same underlying system, possibly even the same interface styling cues, but they certainly don't share the same UI across all devices.

      Why are so many children on this site so determined that it's either one ecosystem or another?

      Adults understand coexistence and the basic fact that different people have different tastes.

    4. json

      Re: Oh?

      Bill and Steve B had an epiphany when they saw their first android phone.

  4. Chad H.
    FAIL

    sigh

    “Microsoft will be this year the first company on the planet to have a consistent UI from the smart phone to the tablet to the slate, to the reader to the rich client and to the TV with our Metro UI,” he said. “We know the power of getting that consistent user experience is something our whole product portfolio will benefit from.”

    ---

    And why is this a good idea?

    I dont use a TV like a phone, laptop, or Ereader, and vise vera in all directions, any more than I use a hammer like a screwdriver.

    When will MS finaly realse that different tools for different jobs need to have different experiences, and a common UI is not always a good thing.

    Sadly, I fear its not going to be after launch.... the Maroons.

    1. Bill Neal
      Unhappy

      Re: sigh

      "that consistent user experience" will not necessarily be a positive experience, but at least it will be consistent, right?

    2. Dan Hall

      Re: sigh

      I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

      MS was successful selling an OS for traditional PCs using the desktop metaphor. A lot of people liked it. So when it was time to build their mobile OS (WinCE) UI they forced the desktop interface into a four-inch screen, Start button and all. It sucked, and users told them so. Later, they built the Metro UI for phones. A lot of people liked it. Now MS is forcing that tiled UI paradigm onto desktop machines. My prediction: It will suck, and users will let them know by not buying Win 8.

      Unfortunately, whenever MS has a hit, they suddenly think that every problem is a nail that they should use that same hammer on.

      1. Nigel 11

        Re: sigh

        When there was a great company called Pilkington that made glass for every application you could imagine and some you couldn't, they ran a corporate-image advert featuring a large iron nail being hammered into wood with a hammer made of glass. And at the end of the advert, the same nail being removed with the glass claw on the other end of the glass hammer.

        If Apple made hammers ....

        I'm no fanboi, but Apple at least knows how to make things pretty. Also that the right interface for an iPhone is not the same as the one for an iMac.

  5. Big_Ted
    WTF?

    And so Microsoft finally surrender in the OS wars by designing a phone interface and porting it to everything else.

    Where I work we are about to go from XP to windows 7 due to MS stopping support for XP.

    We will stick with Windows 7 until dragged kicking and screaming away from it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if by then Android has moved on to version 10 or 15 and will be a full blown OS that works on everything the way it should and we would switch to it, we will not go the route of Windows 8 style UI no matter what, it just won't work in business that uses more than Office day to day. Or even that Apple makes its OS available on more than just their own kit and it will make big inroads into windows territory.........

  6. admiraljkb
    Joke

    MS BOB icon is required

    Anyone else reminded of good old Bob from that Dynamics screenshot, or is it just me?

  7. BozNZ
    Facepalm

    Battery Life

    2 months battery life running Windows 8 e-reader edition - ROTFL

  8. amanfromarse

    'Microsoft will be this year the first company on the planet to have a consistent UI from blah to blah..'

    There's a reason for that.

    The same reason that motorbikes don't have steering wheels.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      "There's a reason for that."

      Apple are also pushing in this direction.

      1. amanfromarse

        Re: "There's a reason for that."

        They moved some features from IOS to OSX.

        Are you suggesting that they are aiming for a unified UI?

        Because that's not how I see it.

    2. Vic

      > The same reason that motorbikes don't have steering wheels.

      I once put a steering wheel on a pushbike. I was seven at the time.

      It was shit. But a useful learning experience, nonetheless. I learnt not to put steering wheels on bicycles.

      Vic.

  9. James 51

    two things I want to know

    DRM and battery life. I would have added screen technology to that but I am assuming that it will be the next generation of e-ink.

  10. William Hinshaw
    FAIL

    Bob 2

    Will be heralded as the worst MS product ever conceived of surpassing even Bob 1.0 in two years after release. The UI will be consistently bad from phone to 64" screen.

    1. Phoenix50
      Stop

      Re: Bob 2

      Indeed - your posts are equally bad, no matter the resolution or format.

  11. the-it-slayer
    Facepalm

    Typical M$...

    ...late in the game, and then want to force their idiotic ideology onto people who will never understand it for a million years (nor will techies want to the support the god damn metro thingy-me-bob).

    What I don't get is why M$ have to jump ship, take a nuclear missile and shoot itself with it without doing some basic research and backend development to see where the market is going and what customer should expect in 5-10 years time. I don't care if they have $$$$$ to blow on failing projects. Surely that's not what the majority of M$ want? Apart from Mr.Ballmer who wants his pie and then leaves when he's eaten it all until he wants to save himself from drowning?

    Yes, Kinect was successful because it was a perfectly timed product where motion technology was taking a huge step forward along side the basic Wii console. Yes, Windows 95 and beyond was perfect because desktops were evolving at an alarming rate and users wanting a better GUI experience. Not perfect, but pushed the boundaries.

    Metro? Force a concept that doesn't fit the direction of post-PC products. I bet Apple almost dared themselves to dump Mac OS X. Again, no. Simply because I bet their research and testing told them so. Both Mac OS X and iOS share some effective components that make each others products much better to use (i.e. App store concept on Mac OS X to reduce CD/DVD/Physical requirements for developers releasing their products to market).

    There's no point forcing a product on to people who expect the next gen product, not 2nd/3rd/4th generation. Unfortunately, you can't teach old generations uber-new tricks. If you have drip feed your consumer. M$ just doesn't understand that simple concept. They seem like to blind themselves, tying their hands behind their back and head butting the self-destruct button.

    M$ the next company to get themselves into trouble?

  12. Mage Silver badge

    Tiles

    Tiles on a Desktop GUI?

    Look how well that worked for Windows 1.0

    Even DR Gem GUI is better than Metro for larger than 5" screens

    1. Mikel
      Devil

      Re: Tiles

      You just haven't tried it enough. Give it a week. Once you're used to it on a desktop you'll be ready for the next step: tiles on your servers. Because who wouldn't want that?

    2. nematoad

      Re: Tiles

      Agreed, and why did GEM fail on PCs?

      Because Apple saw a competitor and set out to cripple it, and they did.

      BTW, GEM on the Atari ST was not crippled and did work well as it avoided the lawsuits from Apple.

  13. cjones
    Joke

    ERP

    Isn't everyone turned on by ERP?

    1. hplasm
      Angel

      Re: ERP

      ERP!

      Pardon me!

  14. Don Mitchell

    ebook

    It's well over ten years since Microsoft cancelled its ebook tablet project. Trying to unfumble the future now?

  15. Efros

    Anyone want

    to buy a Zune?

    1. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: Anyone want

      Anybody?

      Still no...

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