With Windows 8, Microsoft made bold changes, such as replacing Windows 7's familiar Start menu with a tiled, touch-friendly Start screen. But bold isn't always synonymous with successful. Unfortunately for Microsoft, many longtime Windows users hated the OS's new look. With Windows 10, which was introduced as a technical preview Sept. 30, Microsoft's making changes again. When the final version of the OS finally hits the market next year, it will include a revamped Start menu, virtual desktops, and a host of other features designed to show the company's continued investment in the desktop UI. In the short term, Microsoft wants to compel upgrades from the Windows XP, Vista, and 7 users who've resisted Win 8's touch-centric UI. If the company's successful, Windows 10's shift back to mouse-based navigation will no doubt play an important role. But over the long run, Windows 10's boldest change isn't about new features; it's about philosophy. Windows 8 suggested Microsoft was somewhat tone deaf to user needs. If this weren't so, the company wouldn't have so massively missed the shift toward mobile devices, and it wouldn't have responded to that shift with Win 8's half-baked, hodgepodge UI. But if Microsoft didn't pay enough attention to users before, the company wants you to know it's listening now. Read more http://www.informationweek.com/soft...11-big-changes/d/d-id/1316264?_mc=RSS_IWK_EDT
Isn't it the common rule that you skip a generation of Windows (98, skip 2000, XP, skip Vista, 7, skip 8)? If so they should've stuck with calling it 9 and just gone to 11 next time if they're trying to fool us. I'm looking forward to Steam OS getting fleshed out. I would love to ditch Windows but gaming on Linux, etc. is a chore.
