What do we really know about Windows 8?
The latest breathless revelations about leaked (OMG!), confidential (OMG! OMG!) Windows 8 documents
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Last week, dormant Windows watchers sprang to life in a huge wave, like fireflies switching on in the Atchafalaya Swamp. Details about Windows 8 leaked (wink, wink) to a card-carrying Windows fan (nod, nod), who blabbed about it in a blog. In Italian, no less.
The ensuing torrent of analyses, speculations, and tea-leaf readings must've had Microsoft's PR handlers jumping for joy. You can't buy publicity like this. Billions of bits were pressed into service illuminating and elucidating on 50 or so slides from a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, all of which come watermarked "Under NDA." Various slides mention both Dell and HP, and it appears likely that the presentation was delivered to folks at Dell or at HP.
[ See Ted Samson's take on the Windows 8 app store in the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. ]
The most complete set of slides that I've seen appear on the Microsoft Kitchen blog.
I think I've read every major analysis of the slides, and I've come to a simple conclusion: We don't know squat about Windows 8. At least, the stuff in the slides is either (1) utterly predictable, (2) highly unlikely, or (3) resurrected ancient history.
In the utterly predictable category:
The rollout will proceed in three phases: planning, development, and readiness. Be still my beating heart. Windows 8 will run on laptops, netbooks, and slates. (As it has for years, eh?) It'll be sold to enthusiasts and consumers.
Hardware manufacturers will have more opportunities to brand Windows for their own PCs and to use Windows to sell their own products. Microsoft's been promising that with every version of Windows since 3.1.
It also appears as if Windiws 8 will have (yet another) new hibernate-like power state, called Logoff+Hibernate. Oh boy. That's, what, seven different Windows-supported power-saving states? This new power state, if you can get it to work, will let your PC start even faster than it can now. Predictable.
Internet Explorer 9 is scheduled to go into beta in August 2010. That should come as a surprise to just about nobody.
For the highly unlikely:
