Where is Windows Going?

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/future_windows_what_we_want_win_8' target='_blank'>http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...t_we_want_win_8</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"For what it&rsquo;s worth, the first 25 years of our lives weren&rsquo;t that smooth, either. So forgive us for favoring words like &ldquo;commemorate&rdquo; or &ldquo;contemplate&rdquo; instead of &ldquo;celebrate,&rdquo; which feels like too rosy a word for an operating system that has given us so much frustration, confusion, and heartache. Hey, maybe now that it&rsquo;s 25, Windows will behave like a grown-up."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1292003742.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>In a world where iPad sales are burning up the charts, Google has released its own OS and notebook PC and everyone lives with instant updates on all their friends, it is easy to say that the computing industry is changing.&nbsp; Windows has come a long way, and it needs to keep changing in order to stay relevant and satisfy the needs of its users.&nbsp; I have to wonder if Windows 8 will be marginalized not because it does not keep up with the needs of its users but because desktop computing is not as important anymore.&nbsp;</p><p>If media hype is any indication, people are becoming much more outgoing, and lighter, smaller, more portable devices like smartphones and tablets will dominate the industry, at least on a consumer level.&nbsp; Sure, desktops and notebooks are certain to be around for a long time, but as people move more to cloud computing and services, how important is the underlying structure?</p><p>It does look like Windows 8 will potentially address some of those, as while there are a lot of great services and apps out there, there are a lot of great services and apps out there.&nbsp; Of the consumer oriented suggestions, Windows 8 appears to becoming more of a gateway to services regardless of being web or application based, bringing it all together for you.&nbsp; I just hope that with all this integration, consumers will still find time to explore new services and websites instead of staying with what they are comfortable with.</p>

[Eriq Cook]

So they're betting that Windows 8 will spell the end of Windows Media Center and Zune will replace it. If this does happen I'd expect a form of TV control (NOT online TV) added to the Zune desktop software. That would actually be very cool, but I can't really see Microsoft doing this. You also have to keep in mind that Windows Media Center is optimized for television displays. I can't imagine trying to view a list of media on the TV using the current Zune software interface. It'll be very interesting to see what they come up with in the next 1-2 years.

If they do nix WMC in favor of Zune and leave out the TV component it'd be a terrible decision, but I wouldn't be surprised either with Microsoft's track record removing important features from products lately :p

[Philip Colmer]

I'm not so sure that we'll see the end of Windows Media Center or the end of Windows Media Player in Windows 8. At least, not without some significant work being put into the Zune software, and I'm not sure that MS will go that way.

For example, only WMP is capable of acting as a DNLA receiver in Win7. Personally, I'd like to see it become more embedded, perhaps into WMC.

Also, Zune can only sync to Zune or WP7 devices. If you kill off WMP, you've lost what some might see as the preferred method of synchronising content to devices such as SanDisk's Clip+.

I think that in a world where you have Apple TV and Google TV now, Microsoft won't drop WMC. They might replace it with something else, but I think it is more likely that we'll just see it continuing to be developed. Unfortunately, now that it is considered to be part of the OS rather than an add-on feature, it means that the development will follow OS cycles and therefore we won't see frequent improvements. That is a shame in a world where I think MS need to be more proactive in developments around the TV.

I agree with the idea that we could have a much lighter-weight OS running a version of WMC. There isn't really a replacement for the extender concept. I'd love to see something with the price and form factor of Apple TV that is capable of running "WMC OS" and is perhaps less configurable than a PC running Windows with Windows Media Center.

One of the things my wife often says against WMC is that it is too techie. I reply that she often says that when I'm sitting in front of the TV with file windows open, running tools to adjust the metadata for my library of TV programmes. I think there possibly needs to be a point where you can start off with an appliance that only runs WMC and can't be radically enhanced, and then grow it up to the full-blown Windows with WMC, depending on your needs.

--Philip