Kurt Shintaku's Blog

It seems to be lost on some folks that you’re SUPPOSED to use the DESKTOP for most of your computing.  Windows 8 is designed to be primarily used…:

• TODAY:  
  …for it’s DESKTOP experience for 90% of what you do
  …for it’s WINDOWS 8 experience for 10% of what you do
• TOMMORROW:
  …for it’s WINDOWS 8 experience for 90% of what you do
  …for it’s DESKTOP experience for 10% of what you do

Did you catch that?  No?  One more time:

YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE USING THE DESKTOP ON WINDOWS 8 FOR THE GREAT MAJORITY OF WHAT YOU DO.  THAT’S WHAT IT’S THERE FOR:  COMPATIBILITY & PRODUCTIVITY.  No one expects the world to be dumping all desktop applications for Windows 8 apps 3 months into Windows 8’s existence.

EXHIBIT A:  DOS-to-WINDOWS
For those that don’t remember the first major Microsoft User Experience transition, when we moved from DOS to Windows, it’s important to know that people didn’t suddenly dump all their DOS applications for what little was available on Windows.  People had lots of DOS-based apps like Multiplan & WordStar that they ran… and they happened to have a few crappy Windows 16-bit apps like “Microsoft Write” that were cute but nothing to get too excited about.

Then over time, across Windows versions  1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1, an interesting thing happened:  Windows 16-bit applications got better than their DOS-based counterparts especially once Word, Excel, and PowerPoint were released for Windows.  Users transitioned gradually over to using Windows primarily.  This is a process that took 3-4 years to accomplish but eventually, it happened.

Same goes for Windows 8.  Sure you’ll continue to use your DESKTOP apps today, like Office, Quicken, AutoCAD, iTunes, Starcraft II, Photoshop, Vegas Video, Roxio, Final Draft, Rosetta Stone, SAT Prep, yadda yadda yadda… but you’ll want to transfer over to WINDOWS 8 apps when available.  Why?  They’ll be optimized for mobility & touch which means that they’ll be more power efficient, usable without a keyboard, and leverage global operating system functions like "SHARE” and “SEARCH”.

EXHIBIT B: WINDOWS 3.1-to-WINDOWS 95
<to be filled in when I get a break… but you old school folks can extrapolate, right?  Think about the slow Win16-to-Win32 transition that happened from Windows versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, & 6.1>

WHEN IS ‘TOMMORROW’?
Sometime in the future… no one really knows.  The bottom line is we’re now at Windows 8 (a.k.a. version 6.2) and the point is this:

1. Windows 8 users are supposed to be using the DESKTOP.  You’re not expected to use WINDOWS 8 apps for even half of what you do today.  The value in today’s computing is in what we do day-to-day and that work is done in the DESKTOP so Windows 8 supports the DESKTOP just as well as Windows 7 does.
2. The value WINDOWS 8 apps provide are mobility, scalability, offline/online connectedness & usability with touch.  And if you believe that mobility, touch, and tablets are the future, then WINDOWS 8 apps are the future.
3. The transition to any new UI takes a long time.  It a gradual process and requires value in the destination UI and it requires developers to make the transition first.  It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.