last week Microsoft launched the Windows 8 Developer Preview at the BUILD Conference in Anaheim, CA.
The first thing that you will notice is the new so called “Metro Style” UI with its “Live Tiles”. This UI should look somewhat familiar to you if you use a Windows Phone 7. Windows 8 still provides the “old” desktop as well.
As an embedded developer I am particularly interested in Windows 8’s ARM SoC (System-On-Chip) support. So far Windows 8 runs on ARM based SoCs from NVIDIA, Qualcomm as well as Texas Instruments. As of now those SoCs supporting Windows 8 consist of a CPU and a GPU only. So far the only ARM based devices that Windows 8 was shown on are Tablet PCs. I am really eager to see how (and if) Windows 8 will be brought into the embedded world…
Windows 8 also comes with a new framework to develop “Metro Style Apps”, called Windows Runtime (WinRT). The classical application development frameworks like Win32, .NET Framework, Silverlight and HTML5 are still available.
Unlike any of the classical application development frameworks, the new WinRT allows you to develop your “Metro Style App” in any language you prefer, based on the same framework (namly WinRT), allowing a better interaction between “Metro Style Apps”.
So go ahead: download and play around with the Windows 8 Developer preview!
Have fun!
1 comment:
The conference was nice at least from the videos, but I am afraid that Microsoft is loosing its momentum. They are already more then one year behind iOS and Android for mobile devices, and they starting this preview it will take more than one year to really ship it.
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