Sinofsky gonsky

I attended TechEd 2012 Australia recently.

I was interested in what the Windows booth had to say about their new product (Windows 8) and when should business plan on upgrading to it.
They seemed to be taking a very strange position.

They said anyone still on Windows Vista should plan an upgrade path to Windows 7 and anyone one on Windows 7 should remain on Windows 7.  Windows 8 was not even mentioned. 
WTF

WTF

WTF

Is this a company trying to sell software?  Are they trying to make money?  Do they feel they need to come up with a "throw away" version of Windows just so they can skip a number?

I understand that the consumer story is very different and they need to catch up there.  But it appears that the entire business story is dead and buried even at birth.

Having Sinofsky gonsky is a great thing in my book. 

A product like Windows that doesn't have a compelling business story is a wasted opportunity to make few lazy billion.

Windows 8 and Business Users

A business user using Windows 8 is faced each day at log in with Weather, Finance, News, Travel, etc tiles.

Seriously!?!?

They then click on the Desktop title and do their job.

It is like having to go via the souvenir shop when exiting a theme park - but in reverse.

There have always been various edition of Windows; Home, Professional, Ultimate, etc.

There should be a "Business" edition.  The "Start screen" can still be present but it boots to a Desktop with a Start menu.  The Start screen can be buried in a menu deep under Accessories.

How to "fix" Windows 8 Metro problem

I have been using Windows 8 preview builds for several months.

Metro does not work on a PC.   I have tried.  I will keep trying.  I just want my Start button back.  I understand why Metro is important in order to regain the table/phone market but it seems to be coming at the expense of the PC market.

Just a suggestion that will solve this problem; the Metro screen should be the default UI for Windows 8 but it should feature a little tick box down the bottom; "[x] Show at start up"    Problem fixed.

Pocket PC and Windows 8 - a lesson not learnt

In the days of the Pocket PC, Microsoft used the familiar desktop metaphor for the design of the user interface and plonked a "Start" button on the bottom left hand corner that you had to click with the stylus.    They proclaimed that having a familiar UI experience between the Pocket PC and the Desktop was a winning formula for mobile UIs.

Then came the iPhone and the world realised that the UI for a mobile device was much better served by a different metaphor.

Microsoft took this on board and Windows Phone 7.x introduced Metro.

The pendulum has now swung in the opposite direction.

The thinking is now if it works on the mobile device it must also work on the PC. Therefore Windows 8 must have Metro too. 

Umm... this logic did not work the first time.  I fear it is not going to work now.  I hope I am wrong.