I think Gruber is wrong to believe that Microsoft truly means to continue their long-suffering approach of putting legacy Windows on touch devices.
The whole time Microsoft was developing WP7, they were touting CE 6.5. A bolt-on veneer for a failed approach. Clearly, Microsoft didn't believe a word of the nonsense they were spouting about 6.5. That's just how they are. They talk up the old platform until the day they kill it.
And I think Windows-on-ARM is the giveaway. If Microsoft believed legacy apps were still so important, why would they have so alienated Intel to create a flavor of Windows that will never run those legacy apps? [1]
The iPad's noted deficiency in any attempt to truly replace a PC is the lack of a 'docked' mode. that is: some way to drop it into a keyboard/mouse/display dock to get some desktop-type-work done. The existing keyboard dock just underscores how poorly it handles these things at present. [2]
And now Microsoft is pruning and optimizing Windows for ARM. The apps will all have to be rewritten [3]. But clearly they're thinking about touch and keyboard/mouse. This sounds like an obvious lead-in to encouraging people to write those Windows 8 ARM apps with a native touch interface as well as a 'docked' kb/m interface.
And if they pull that off -- an all-metro Windows 8 touch default and plenty of designed-for-touch apps, but the capability to dock and go kb/m on desktop work -- they'll be on solid footing to fight for their business customers.
And, honestly, if Microsoft could get out of its own way and streamline their media offerings, they could turn 8 into a really great device for consumers too.
[1] The nascent arm-in-the-datacenter market is somewhat plausible, but I don't buy it as a lone justification to so thoroughly piss of Intel. It's not nearly as important as trying to protect the relevance of user-facing Windows in a post-PC era.
[2] Try navigating around an app or the OS with the keyboard. Oh wait, you can't. How many writers don't switch apps constantly during their process to check references/email/etc? And isn't that who the keyboard was for?
[3] CLR apps that run on Windows 8 ARM are going to be about as popular as pixel-doubled iPhone apps on the iPad.
The whole time Microsoft was developing WP7, they were touting CE 6.5. A bolt-on veneer for a failed approach. Clearly, Microsoft didn't believe a word of the nonsense they were spouting about 6.5. That's just how they are. They talk up the old platform until the day they kill it.
And I think Windows-on-ARM is the giveaway. If Microsoft believed legacy apps were still so important, why would they have so alienated Intel to create a flavor of Windows that will never run those legacy apps? [1]
The iPad's noted deficiency in any attempt to truly replace a PC is the lack of a 'docked' mode. that is: some way to drop it into a keyboard/mouse/display dock to get some desktop-type-work done. The existing keyboard dock just underscores how poorly it handles these things at present. [2]
And now Microsoft is pruning and optimizing Windows for ARM. The apps will all have to be rewritten [3]. But clearly they're thinking about touch and keyboard/mouse. This sounds like an obvious lead-in to encouraging people to write those Windows 8 ARM apps with a native touch interface as well as a 'docked' kb/m interface.
And if they pull that off -- an all-metro Windows 8 touch default and plenty of designed-for-touch apps, but the capability to dock and go kb/m on desktop work -- they'll be on solid footing to fight for their business customers.
And, honestly, if Microsoft could get out of its own way and streamline their media offerings, they could turn 8 into a really great device for consumers too.
[1] The nascent arm-in-the-datacenter market is somewhat plausible, but I don't buy it as a lone justification to so thoroughly piss of Intel. It's not nearly as important as trying to protect the relevance of user-facing Windows in a post-PC era.
[2] Try navigating around an app or the OS with the keyboard. Oh wait, you can't. How many writers don't switch apps constantly during their process to check references/email/etc? And isn't that who the keyboard was for?
[3] CLR apps that run on Windows 8 ARM are going to be about as popular as pixel-doubled iPhone apps on the iPad.