{"id":4434,"date":"2011-06-02T08:30:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T07:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/4434-check-out-these-images-of-windows-8-but-where-is-silverlight.html"},"modified":"2011-06-02T08:30:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T07:30:16","slug":"check-out-these-images-of-windows-8-but-where-is-silverlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/4434-check-out-these-images-of-windows-8-but-where-is-silverlight.html","title":{"rendered":"Check out these images of Windows 8 – but where is Silverlight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft\u2019s Windows President Steven Sinofsky has shown off an early build of Windows 8 at the D9 conference<\/a> in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It turns out that the not-so subliminal messaging at the PDC conference late in 2010 was spot on. HTML 5 and JavaScript are at the centre of the new Windows, for apps as well as in the browser: <\/p>\n

\n

Windows 8 apps use the power of HTML5, tapping into the native capabilities of Windows using standard JavaScript and HTML to deliver new kinds of experiences. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

says program manager Jensen Harris in his introductory video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what is the new Windows like? Here is tour with some screen grabs from the above video. I have deliberately included fingers in several of the shots, because the new Windows is touch-centric.<\/p>\n

First, Windows 8 borrows from Windows Phone and has a Start screen built with Live tiles:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Live tiles, as on Windows Phone, are more than just icons; they can include notifications, video and animations. They are more like app previews.<\/p>\n

Apps run essentially full-screen, as on Apple\u2019s iPad:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You switch apps by swiping. Here is a screen caught mid-swipe:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

However, you can also have two apps on screen. One is the main app, the other is docked to the side:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A menu on the right shows Search, Share. Start. Connect and Settings. I am not sure what Connect does.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Believe it or not, this is Internet Explorer 10, with tabs along the top that preview each page (nice idea):<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The on-screen keyboard looks like a big phone keyboard:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dual Personality<\/h3>\n

So where is the rest of Windows that we know and love\/hate? It is still there; run an \u201cold\u201d Windows app like Excel and presto, it is Windows 7, complete with task bar. This image looks blurry, which actually is a clue to how big and bold the UI shown for the \u201cnew\u201d apps really is:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can run old and new-style apps side by side, using the main\/side app model:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Windows 8 will run on both Intel x86\/x64 processors, and on ARM. Legacy app compatibility on Intel will be great, but on ARM applications will need to be recompiled. There is no x86 emulation layer; Sinofsky said that was too difficult to do. Windows 8 will not require any more hardware than Windows 7.<\/p>\n

It looks like Microsoft has created an excellent tablet\/slate UI which has the same relation to the iPad that Windows Phone 7 has to the iPhone. It borrows many of the ideas but adds some distinctive features. <\/p>\n

The big difference: whereas Apple has chosen to continue a dual line, with desktop\/laptop Mac in one stream and iOS for iPhone and iPad in another, Microsoft is combining the two.<\/p>\n

At least, it is in Windows 8. What about the current Windows Phone OS, which is built on the Windows CE OS? Will it be replaced by a variant of Windows 8, possibly with \u201cfull Windows\u201d option disabled? That is my guess, but there is a lot which Microsoft has not yet explained about its future product plans.<\/p>\n

Another question: where is Silverlight and .NET? Clearly these technologies are still supported, at least on x86, since all of Windows is still there. In a report from D9<\/a>, Sinofsky says:<\/p>\n

\n

The browser that we showed runs Silverlight and it will still run on the desktop<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That does not answer the question: can developers build apps for the new Windows user interface (and Windows store) using Silverlight, or is it HTML\/JavaScript only? What about native code? <\/p>\n

I will be surprised if all these options are not available, but it was not explicitly stated at D9. The emphasis is firmly on HTML.<\/p>\n

We are promised more details at the BUILD<\/a> conference in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft\u2019s Windows President Steven Sinofsky has shown off an early build of Windows 8 at the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It turns out that the not-so subliminal messaging at the PDC conference late in 2010 was spot on. HTML 5 and JavaScript are at the centre of the new Windows, for apps … Continue reading Check out these images of Windows 8 – but where is Silverlight?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,47,55,67,77,80,97],"tags":[225,999],"class_list":["post-4434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-net","category-apple","category-iphone","category-microsoft","category-professional","category-silverlight","category-software-development","category-windows","tag-build","tag-windows-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}