Five Reasons Windows 8 Will Rock

Microsoft are about to strike back with their radcal revision of their OS - Windows 8. After having a quick look, we give you the top five reasons why Windows 8 is going to blow your mind.

By Leo Stiles

Not even the barrage of iPhone 5 rumors could take the focus off the biggest tech story of the week as Microsoft took the wraps off the most important revision of their operating system in a decade.

As you'd expect, the noise levels surrounding the announcement this week have been pretty loud, but fear not, JOE Tech is here with the top five reasons that you should be excited for Windows 8.

1. It’s a radical departure

Windows 8 looks like nothing you have ever seen from Microsoft. Actually that’s a bit of a fib because the new look and interface come fresh from the incredible Windows 7 Phone OS, which despite not having an impact sales-wise, is a good deal more innovative than Google or Apple’s offerings.

Microsoft is stressing that this Windows is the one that cuts back on the flab of previous iterations and so far they are as good as their word, with early reports saying that the OS boots on Atom-driven netbooks in just eight seconds. Other tests on high-end machines report astonishing speeds and a responsiveness that is unlike anything Microsoft has produced before.

2. It’s a unified operating system

Possibly the most significant aspect of Windows 8 is that it is a full bodied OS that will run equally well on both a desktop or laptop PC and on a tablet. Whether you’re tapping away at a keyboard or a screen, the interface will be the same and crucially no features that you have come to expect from Windows will be lost in translation, while running software on either setup will be an identical experience.

Furthermore, Windows 8 is designed to talk effortlessly to both Windows phones and future iterations of Xbox and Kinect, offering an unparalleled and familiar unified approach to all your computing needs.

3. Its fantastic ‘Metro’ interface

Anyone who has experienced the latest Windows smartphones will be able to tell you that they are a joy to use, with an interface that knocks Apple and Googles efforts into a cocked hat.

Gone are the endless and static windows of old and in come 'Smart Tiles', which group together applications and files intelligently and display need to know information as a continually updated tile face. Navigation is done with icons and while the whole affair is obviously modeled on a touchscreen interface, the simplicity of navigation has been ported across with little in the way of clumsiness that you may expect.

If the new style doesn’t float your boat, then Microsoft also has you luddites covered with the ability to switch to a more familiar Windows 7 look.

4. It’s potentially an iPad killer

If there was ever one company that was going to produce a true rival to iOS and Android, it was going to be Microsoft. Along with Apple, Microsoft invented the modern operating system and the radical new design of Windows 8 is geared towards building a true iPad killer

Not convinced? How about a tablet that can run full Windows apps such as Word and Excel or that can effortlessly run two apps side by side instead of one at a time? If that doesn’t get you then how about the fact that when the OS launches in 2012, it will be on a generation of tablets that all have the power of a high end laptop and could conceivably run modern games like Battlefield and Call of Duty?

Add in a real file system, full compatibility with Java, Silverlight and Flash and you can see the potential. All this and we haven’t even mentioned the app store...

5. It’s finally going to give us a Windows app store

Apps stores are fairly old hat these days but you shouldn’t underestimate the significance of a Microsoft offering, especially when so many applications and games are written for Windows machines.

Where Windows has a trump card over its competitors is that every application in the store must have a free trial option, something that users of Xbox Live will be very familiar with and will help avoid any regretful purchases. Lastly, the app store will deliver some much needed quality control with malware rejected by the store and simple things like reviews and ratings making choosing software a doddle.

But it’s early days yet...

From what we have seen so far this is the kind of innovation that Microsoft has been missing for the best part of a decade of playing it safe. However, we still don’t know when Windows 8 will ship and what the configuration of the potential tablets will be. Microsoft is also aiming at a target that is moving at the speed of sound and potentially Microsoft could be facing the fourth generation of iPads when it finally launches, never mind what Android will have evolved into by then.

Still, we think there is enough brilliance on display for now to earn them the benefit of the doubt and if, in year’s time you think that Windows 8 rocks, then remember - you heard it here first.

For those of you looking to get your hands on the first Windows 8 developer build, you can download a copy for free from Microsoft here.