Windows 8-Rumors and Announcements

[jacksunny 741]

Some news on the W8 tablets. Microsoft patents have revealed several things including:

-It will use an optional stylus

-Some of the motions for actions such as cut and copy.

The actions patented are:

Copy

This is the copy gesture. As you pull the copy farther away from the original, the opacity increases.

Staple

The staple gesture allows users to group items together into "stacks".

Cut

This gesture is used to split objects apart.

Punch-Out

This gesture allows users to select parts of a picture and "punch" them out.

Rip

This allows you to rip an image apart.

Edge

This one allows users to use another image as a rule and mark straight lines on another image.

Stamp

This one allows you to make copies of an image that look like stamps.

There are many other gestures including carbon-copy, fill, cross-reference, link, and brush. Most of the patented gestures are photo editing related.

source

  Edited August 1, 2011 by jacksunny  

[Ceafus 88 1,899]

Whoa good stuff there Jacksunny, thanks for sharing

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Interesting. Do you have to invoke an editing package or is this built in to the desktop? It most certainly has symptoms of bloatware.

If this is part of the desktop, it is yet another piece of evidence that Microsoft thinks it owns you and your PC.

Oh, and patenting gestures has implications of conflict with standard gestures used by the deaf.

  Edited August 1, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[jacksunny 741]

Here is a video showing how photo sharing will work with Windows 8 tablets. It seems that it will use voice commands.

  Edited August 11, 2011 by jacksunny  

[jacksunny 741]

Microsoft has launched its "Building Windows 8" blog. You can find it here.

[Larks2242 251]

Why must they insist on changing everything in each OS to "make it easier" when they only make it more confusing and annoying?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Why must they insist on changing everything in each OS to "make it easier" when they only make it more confusing and annoying?

Its called "churning the base" and is a marketing technique used when the market is saturated. The idea is to make you unhappy with your current version which will lead to more sales. It is a matter of fashion. As times are getting harder now, I wish them an utter failure.

[jacksunny 741]

They can also improve each OS as new technologies are made. For example, Windows 8 uses a lot of HTML 5, which is significantly improved from the previous version.

Anyway, a patent filed by Microsoft reveals plans for a "streaming operating system." It describes a method of booting a virtual OS through remote storage. It says that this technology can be used on a wide range of devices.

You can view the patent here.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I'm sorry, you don't improve an operating system by using VHLLs. With HTML 5 they might improve IE, which would send most of us into shock.

An operating system has exactly one function:-- Operate the iron. The rest is application software. File systems, however arcane, are simply application programs, and shouldn't really be too friendly with the O/S. In fact, nothing should be very friendly with the O/S, it just complicates it and erodes its necessary functionality.

[jacksunny 741]

In the most recent blog post, Microsoft revealed all the separate teams who contribute to Windows. One of those teams was the "App Store" team, so the rumour that there will be a Windows 8 app store could be true.

[Easy Bakes 253]

They can also improve each OS as new technologies are made. For example, Windows 8 uses a lot of HTML 5, which is significantly improved from the previous version.

Anyway, a patent filed by Microsoft reveals plans for a "streaming operating system." It describes a method of booting a virtual OS through remote storage. It says that this technology can be used on a wide range of devices.

You can view the patent here.

not sure i like the idea of my PC being a microsoft inc workstation.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

not sure i like the idea of my PC being a microsoft inc workstation.

There is an easy answer to that. Get out of your comfortable pew. This O/S can be tested with no risk. Just download and make a live CD, boot it, and play. It runs entirely in memory unless you ask it to install. Then you can wipe out windows, or dual boot.

Microsoft is far from the only operating system purveyor in the world. You just have to have a little gumption, and be willing to do a few handsprings.

Your are right, I am proselytizing for Linux.

[jacksunny 741]

In this blog post, Microsoft revealed the new Copy/Paste UI. The new start button is also reveled in the video.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

In this blog post, Microsoft revealed the new Copy/Paste UI. The new start button is also reveled in the video.

Now, that is excellent. It will demystify these operations for a lot of people. Now, if they can only get rid of the FAT (even NFTS as a FAT) and/or prevent overflows that lose entries for file space, things will be a lot better. I might give windows 8 a whirl if it doesn't want to own my machine.

[jacksunny 741]

Microsoft might be preparing Win8 tablets to give to the attendees of the BUILD conference according to this post.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Microsoft might be preparing Win8 tablets to give to the attendees of the BUILD conference according to this post.

Since the official release date is sometime in 2012, and they've been doing a lot of pre-hype, I wonder if this is going to be a new O/S and not Windows 6.2?

It has so much fixed up and new stuff that continuing with the old, bloated mess might just be too much. Is it possible that this has been in the works for a very long time, and will indeed be Windows 8.0.0? Keeping backwards compatibility will be just a matter of using something like wine to handle the older decors. It could even be kept transparent.

Funny if they have finally wakened up and gone to a UNIX-like system.

  Edited August 26, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[jacksunny 741]

Microsoft showed the "improvements" to Windows Explorer in this video.

I personally hate it. While some of the new features are cool, such as Copy Path, I don't like the ribbon.

They also detailed native support for ISO and VHD files in this blog post.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ It is past time for ISO support. Does this mean that ISO disks can be mounted as drives?

[jacksunny 741]

Microsoft has confirmed that the Media Center will be in Windows 8, but will not be included in the pre-release builds.

[hummer0328 6]

^ It is past time for ISO support. Does this mean that ISO disks can be mounted as drives?

I doubt it. Too many issues related to software piracy. Most likely, it means Windows users can finally see/edit inside of ISO images. Big deal. It's something windows should have been able to do for a long time. On Linux, I can see/edit inside of all sorts of files windows users can't without 3rd party support. Like: .exe .bin .iso .epub .jar .tar .gz .bz2 .7z .Z .ar .cbz .lzma .lzo .xz .rar, all using a single app.

And I see in that video that windows 8 will still use zip as the default compression archiver. Really! C'mon MS, move over to a more modern alternative. How about .lzo, better compression ratios than .zip, and insanely fast on both compression/decompression, or .lzma, about as fast as .zip (maybe a bit faster), but far, far better compression ratios.

  Edited September 6, 2011 by hummer0328  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

As long as .zip files don't go away. This would be a considerable disadvantage to Simtropolis.

[jacksunny 741]

I'm sure ST wouldn't be the only site affected. Surely MS would have enough sense not to do that.

Anyway, it is rumored that if tablets are to be given away at BUILD, they will be made by Samsung.

[jacksunny 741]

The Windows 8 Bing App has been revealed.

[jacksunny 741]

It has been confirmed that a Samsung tablet will be shown at BUILD.

More on the Windows 8 Bing app which I personally don't like.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

It has been confirmed that a Samsung tablet will be shown at BUILD.

More on the Windows 8 Bing app which I personally don't like.

This may very well be a watershed time for you. Consider Linux. I like Ubuntu, some like Mint, some like Debian. The choice is yours. It is really just a matter of preferred decor.

[jacksunny 741]

Finally!!! Something useful!!! The new boot and shutdown system will be much faster than the old one. Instead of closing the kernel session, it goes into hibernation. When the system is booted back up, the kernel loads much faster than it would without hibernating. My link

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

That's nice. Ubuntu got their hibernate function working sometime in the last couple of releases. I gather they do a sync (flush file system buffers) then write the entire core image to the swap space. This works like a charm. Everything that was running when you closed comes back without a ripple. It is only slightly faster than a cold boot.

I hope there is an easy way in Windows 8 to invoke a cold boot?

[jacksunny 741]

BUILD is tommorow!!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

BUILD is tommorow!!

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

"Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

"And all our yesterday's have lighted fools

"The way to dusty death ..."

Macbeth - Act V

[jacksunny 741]

Microsoft has apparantly tried to simplify the UI experience.

When you turn on and log into your computer, you go to the new start screen.

You have an option to zoom out so you can see the entire start screen. This is useful if you have a large number of tiles.

The start screen also has a sidebar that consists of 5 "chimes." These chimes allow users to quickly do tasks such as search, share, go to the start menu, view the device manager, and change settings. It also shows the network status and power status of a device.

Windows 8 will ship with Internet Explorer 10. It features a new UI, more hardware acceleration, and sharper text. Instead of being at the top, the adress bar and other buttons are at the bottom and are hidden by default. They can be acessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen or moving your mouse to the bottom.

The search feture has also been improved (anything could be better than what is with Windows 7). You can now use the search feature to search within an application, instead of just within Windows.

Developers can create Metro applications using C++, C, C#, VB, HTML/CSS and JavaScript.

Microsoft hasn't revealed when a beta will be avilable.

Here is a video showing the new start screen.

And as for the classic desktop, the only change really is the new ribbon in Explorer.