Windows 8, Much more than Metro

Today Microsoft showed off Windows 8, well at least a small part of it.  The whole of Windows chief Steven Sinofsky’s two and half hour keynote today was focused on their new Metro interface, now the default interface for Windows.
This is understandable as Microsoft have lost significant ground in the tablet market and when Windows 8 launches in around a year from now, they need to make a big impact in that market and launch with a large number of readily available apps for the new Metro interface.  The company therefore wants to hit the ground running with their headline feature, the one that’s make of break for the company.
But what about everybody else?  Many of you will be thinking perhaps that only 10% of all Windows 8 users will use tablets and touch screens and that will account perhaps for just 5% of overall PC users.  Of this we’ll have to wait and see as Metro might really take off on the desktop, but if you’re worried about being left behind and unsupported don’t.
One thing Sinofsky did say during his keynote was that there are a couple of hundred new features in Windows 8 of which the Metro interface and it’s extras are just a few.  We’ll see a constant stream now of details about Windows 8 in depth that will satisfy the people excited about Metro, but also give use excellent details of everything else.
It’s also important to remember that we’re still more than a year away from Windows 8 going on sale, which means a great deal will change in the next twelve months.  Some features will be dropped completely, some will be added and some will change slightly or significantly.  What you will see now in the developer preview is by no means a finished product so shouldn’t be judged as such.
I’ll be going through Windows 8 in the coming weeks with a fine tooth comb and I’ll report back to you all what it’s really like under the bonnet and past the fluff.  These are exciting times though and Apple and Google could well now be worried.