Just five more days and Windows 8 reaches General Availability. And Windows 8 RT devices are for sale next weekend. There’s a lot of opinions going round now, a lot of them angry-like or even negative. I also have an opinion, I happily run Windows 8 and I was in time to pre-order Microsoft’s Surface RT, so my opinion is clear J.
I want to be in front, ahead of things, I’m already done with Server 2012, looking for what’s next. So I’ll be one of the first in The Netherlands to own a Surface RT, without a Start Button and without a Desktop. And I think that’s where we are going, who needs an OS, who needs a Desktop with a Start Button. It’s all about the apps.
And that is exactly what Microsoft is aiming at: deliver consistent apps-experience (apperience) on whatever device, there’s even tiles on Server 2012! Very nice that we can run our VMs on Azure but running VMs is so out of date. Microsoft is the first – and as largest OS producer they should – to recognize the end of the OS era. It will take some time, sure. But look at how fast we abandoned wired phones, both at work and at home. It must be a year ago since I last held a wired telephone device in my hands (or actually DIALED a number). On our mobile phones we talk just a little on the brand and flavor, we talk more about the apps. And if the app will run on a particular device.
That is the next step when there is no more need to run apps on the devices, here is HTML5, so the apps runs in a browser and browsers are found on all devices. Delivering apps is becoming a nightmare because of all those platforms, I think it’s really stupid to want to run a Windows Desktop running in a Datacenter on an iPad through a Citrix Receiver. Only because there are some “legacy” apps on that Desktop that cannot be run on the iPad? In my opinion it’s a transition phase, the Desktop is dying and with that so is VDI, SBC, XP, Windows 7 and even Windows 8.
In a couple of years we will all have pretty simple devices running nothing but a browser and some supporting OS for connectivity and Interface purposes; not for running apps though. Microsoft’s Surface RT is a pretty dumb device, kind of portal for apps. I will use Office2013 WebApps on Office365, save my files on SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro, tether through my Windows Phone when there’s no Wifi available (hardly imaginable in The Netherlands), and yes, connect to my full blown Windows 8 Enterprise machine if I must (hey, this is a transition phase for me also). Some people are waiting for the Windows 8 Pro tablets, the Intel based machines which can run legacy Windows application. Those people clearly missed something in the conversation. Huh? You wait to by the newest of the newest of the hottest because you want to be able to run LEGACY apps? Yeah, smart. Will cost you something also.
So, I can hardly wait to start working with my Surface RT!