Windoaws 10 is here! – I

The number 9 is skipped in the product-naming convention, so what we are going to get next is 10. That is, Windows 10, which will be available to download on 29 July 2015. If you are a Windows 7 or 8 user and you want to upgrade, rather than buy a new computer, you can […]

The number 9 is skipped in the product-naming convention, so what we are going to get next is 10. That is, Windows 10, which will be available to download on 29 July 2015. If you are a Windows 7 or 8 user and you want to upgrade, rather than buy a new computer, you can reserve your copy of Windows 10 today! From the way these products usually pan out – that is, success in alternating releases – Windows 10 will probably be okay.
What a journey! It feels like just a few years ago when Microsoft, in 1995, “borrowing” graphics user interface (GUI) features from Apple’s Macintosh, replaced its command line-based disc operating system (DOS) with the Windows 95 OS, the first GUI version of the Microsoft OS, to compete with Macintosh, on the microcomputer side, and with the various branded renditions of AT&T’s Unix OS (AIX, Solaris, Ultrix, IRIX, HP-UX,Digital-UNIX, …), on the minicomputer side. (Cray, although in a different class in those days, also had its own UNIX flavor OS called UNICOS.)
From the early 80s to just a few years ago, virtually all micro-computing, independent of platform, was done on the desktop. Today, the game has changed, as a significant fraction of “light” computer users are migrating to smartphones and tablets for their computing and web-access needs. This factor weighted heavily with Microsoft in coming up with a replacement for Windows 7 OS, which was purely intended for desktops and laptops. Windows 8 represents a fundamental shift in the way Windows works and is far more touchscreen-orientated for use on tablets as well as traditional PCs.
The static shortcuts of yesterday, on the screens of PC Windows and laptops, have been supplanted in Windows 8 by live tiles that “bristle with activity.” One “PC How-To” guide enthusiastically describes Windows 8 Start screen as “full of animated shortcuts known as Live Tiles, which display rotating information on the fly.” The Windows 8 live tiles are quite pleasing to the eye and they are also endowed with impressive on-the-fly functionalities. The user interface (UI) is quite pretty, and some believe that the operating system is probably the “freshest, cleanest, and most imaginative” one around. In Windows 8, live news feed constantly scroll by, so you can click on an interesting news item for details. Changing stock prices from Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500, are displayed by the minute and you can watch Norton Antivirus “do its thing” by the second. The list goes on.
Windows 8 is faster (than Windows 7). And it’s significantly more secure. And then there are the features, such as Storage Space and File History, or the new Windows Explorer, or better multi-monitor support. Picture Password is a great compromise between security and convenience (and yes, it works with a mouse as well as a touchscreen). The charm bar, especially the handy icons on the Setting bar, puts most of the tools you actually use to manage your PC at your fingertips. The cloud integration in Windows 8 is a game changer.
But with all these sophisticated capabilities and functionalities, Windows 8 didn’t work out; to the effect that virtually all PCs are still using Windows 7. (Windows xp, now an unsupported OS, still has some followers.) There are a few reasons for this. The new experience and interface in Windows 8 are far from being universally popular, and while every interface is a matter of personal taste, the range of opinions about the Windows 8 interface is extreme even for the world of technology. We miss the unified search of documents and emails in the Windows 8 desktop that you could start from the Start menu, which Microsoft tells us very few people used.
Talking of things that should install automatically, why are the official apps such as Mail, Messages, Calendar, and the Bing apps the only ones that you get in Windows 8 without having to go to the Windows Store? If you own apps that you’ve installed from the Store on another PC, we’d like to see the installation ask if you want to install them as well.
The rather impressive live displays in Windows 8 come at a great price, as far as your Internet connectivity is concerned, especially if you accept the default settings from the factory. The tiles are made live via web access, which takes place at the expense of your data plan. Depending on the type or number of live tiles that are turned on, as well as other automatically updated applications, data of significant sizes are pulled from and pushed to the web using your bandwidth. Some of the “offending” objects are those that have been “pinned” to the Windows 8 Start screen either by you or from the factory.
The long and short of the Windows 8 story is that the product is essentially a flop, but Microsoft has learned some lessons. A testament to this statement is the 21 January 2015 event where the company presented consumer-focused functions in Windows 10, and solicited input. Microsoft is almost ready with Windows 10, and on 29 July 2015, you can download yours.
This article originally appeared in this column in Daily Trust on 15 December 2014, but has been updated to include new information. Next week, I’ll cut to the chase to provide details on Windows 10 “killer” features, downloading, price, and so on.