Windows 8

19. September 2011 02:29 by gogman in Development, Microsoft, Technology  //  Tags: ,   //   Comments (2)

Microsoft had their Build conference here in Southern California last week. For the first time in 10 or so years I am genuinely excited with what they presented.

I grabbed the developer preview and installed it on my primary development machine on a new hard drive. It ran surprisingly well out of the box. I only need to update two drivers to have it functionally equivalent to my Windows 7 install:

  • I needed to update the video driver to the latest nVidia beta to get the HDMI output to work. The VGA port worked just fine with the default Windows 8 nVidia driver, but I don’t do analog.
  • I needed to install the Windows 7 64-bit driver for the O2Micro SD reader, it was not recognized by Windows 8 during the setup. The same thing happens with Windows 7.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty uneventful preview aside from the WONDERFUL new features, enhancements, and the LOVELY Metro interface. I even have Minecraft, Team Fortress 2, and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with all the Mango developer tools running on it like butter. I may actually use it day to day.

Having had a Windows Phone 7 phone since day one, I have longed to see the Metro interface on a tablet and PC. Looks like I got my wish! As for developing apps for Windows 8, it’s cake. A few tiny changes in a little bit of code and methodologies as well as some new name-spaces. Not really much at all considering the re-imagining of Windows. All I can say is that I can’t wait to see what comes next!

Here’s the Keynote speech from Build Day 1. It’s amazing how excited and how much enthusiasm everyone is showing. I think Microsoft may have gotten its’ Mojo back!

 

Steven Sinofsky is the man.

Comments (2) -

J
J
9/19/2011 3:26:28 PM #

"LOVELY Metro interface"----


         ...you love'n the Metro!..LOL!

J

gogman
gogman
9/19/2011 4:26:31 PM #

Metro rocks! It truly is a paradigm shift in UI design. It really is fun to design for but on the same note, being such a different type of interface there's some definite learning going on.

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gogman

gogmanBorn naked, unable to communicate, walk, or feed himself, Gogman overcame these handicaps to become a technologist, decent open water sailor, pretty darn good cook, husband, cat lover, and mediocre blogger.

Gogman works as the CTO at Atomic Goat Studios, an independent game studio start-up located in Southern California developing games for the PC, XBox 360, and Windows Phone 7.

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