Windows 8 Review: Microsoft straps a tablet operating system to Windows 8. Should enthusiasts make the big upgrade? Windows 8 is not a want, it’s a necessity. Not for you, the consumer. For Microsoft. We’d like to think that somewhere, somehow, a group of user interface experts like to meet up for lunch in one of Microsoft’s (likely) sprawling Redmond cafeterias. They talk about their days, their families, and how horrified they are at Microsoft’s decisionâ€"and needâ€"to unify a single user experience across its entire product line. That’s the real reason why Windows 8 looks and feels like a tablet operating system slapped overtop Windows 7 (with a few tweaks here and there). It is. Users are given no way around itâ€"Microsoft has made sure of that fact. And, in many ways, there’s no way around it for Microsoft, either. The company has decided that users cannot have dissimilar Windows experiences across desktops, tablets, smartphones, or any other kooky gadgets on the horizon, but refuses (or can’t) cut the cord of the traditional desktop experience just yet. Windows 8 is the natural, necessary hybridâ€"the last time you’re likely to see the “core†Windows experience of the last decade mashed together with the multicolored, touch-sensitive, “Metro†boxes of the future. A word on that: While Microsoft has elected to not call the tablet-ized portion of Windows 8’s user interface Metroâ€"it’s now just called “Windows 8,†we thinkâ€"we’l
Comment