Microsoft has released the Windows 8 preview. I have to give a little credit to MS. They did a really nice job of putting a layer over Windows. The interface can switch between Metro(tablet style UI) and a desktop for those die hards who want the older mode. It seems you either love Metro or you hate it. Its not bad…but to me it really looks kind of flat and lifeless…kind of like Steve Ballmer. It’s a little like the 2012 version of the BOB UI.  Still, it is a good effort for MS….they have realized they can’t live with just the old desktop metaphor.

It is really tough for MS to break away from their very successful desktop OS. You just can’t abandon such a huge market that is happily using your product and the tablet and mobile market just hast caught on for MS and that makes it very hard to innovate. Windows 8 is a good effort to start trying to move ahead. It really is tough…I see a lot of corporations still running XP and maybe, just maybe they are slowly switching to Windows 7. I’m not sure I see much adoption of Windows 8 in the corporate world for awhile even though in many ways it is just an update of Windows 7. Windows 8 boots faster though and that could garner attention.

I don’t know…this hopeful convergence of the mobile OS’s and the desktop OS has a way to go for me. OSX Lion took some first steps toward this mode with Launcher etc…but frankly I don’t use them – they don’t draw me in. Apple actually dumbed down a couple things…like todo’s in the desktop app to meet the simplified mobile app reminders. I think this convergence is still a work in progress.

OK, here we go…looking at a new quad core iPad with super high resolution and cloud storage…I won’t really NEED a desktop soon…except for ONE THING. That is creating a lot of content. If Apple ever figures out how to do a better job of providing a tactile, larger(I have big hands) keyboard…I will be done with the old laptops and desktops. For me…that is the only thing keeping me from going full time to a tablet (iPad). I don’t need my laptop to act like my iPad…I need my iPad to have an input device more like my keyboard on the laptop. I don’t really want OSX…I want iOS to evolve. This is the same issue with Windows 8 by the way.