I truly want to love Windows 8, I really do. To see Microsoft finally moving into the Tablet market and other possible markets is a breath of fresh air. To have a REAL operating system on this small touch devices, or on larger interactive devices will be a God send to those who could use such a device. There are plenty of examples where this would be a boon to productivity and usefulness. One of my favorite examples is in the medical fields. Right now the doctor’s office I visit has switched to a paperless environment (as much as they could…) And all Doctors carry around Lenovo laptops to enter data while consulting with patients. It’s obviously a burden to some extent. The input seems slow, and they must have power bricks lined around the office to keep these machines powered up and running. For a paper-less endeavor, I’m not impressed. However, with a low power touch tablet this could be 100% the opposite. The devices would be less burdensome, and much more productive if the software was written well. iPads might work, but we all know that an iPad is not a full computer. Close, but still not quite full in comparison to a computer that sits on your desk or a well designed laptop. Windows 8 can change this. Windows 8 IS a full OS, and most hardware designs I’ve seen so far do not have any limitations like those found on iPads or Android based tables. Retail could benefit too, mobile sales forces, inventory takers. Or technical staff, not computer technical but other technical work like repairmen or folks that inspect work etc etc. They could really benefit from not having to be tied down to a desk for most of the data entry and manipulation. Windows 8 could open the world up immensely.
However, the product I’ve seen so far in Windows 8 just simply can not replace the power and needs of a full desktop computer. There are too many jobs where the speed, control and power is not of the type where a touch enabled interface will assist well. Not even if it does allow keyboard and mouse use.
As a person who is suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, keyboard and mouse use are a key factor in my consideration. Windows 8 Metro interface blows the amount of mouse use needed up my a LOT! I feel I need to move the mouse twice as much to get things done as I used to. This is not good, and quite frankly HURTS! While if the work I needed to do could be handled by touch only, I’d be glad. No, I’d be ecstatic! But a lot of it just doesn’t fit the style needed in touch interfaces. Some of it does, and I’ll eventually purchase and use a tablet device with Windows 8 on it. But, I’ll never be able to replace my desktop 100%. A lot of folks won’t be able to.
I applaud Microsoft for taking this move. But not without trepidation. I really believe they’d done better by forking Windows between tablet and desktop versions. I pray they at least allow this as an option on the release version of Windows 8. Please allow me to choose which Start Menu I use on each device I install Windows 8 on!!
Technical Ramblings 