So apparently windows 8 release date is set for Late 2011, early 2012, and I feel like Windows 7 just came out the other day!

Allow me to rant if you will, I'am all for companies putting extra time and effort into a product to make it better, and should be rewarded for their time and efforts. But more and more (Especially with video games) I feel like they are churning out the same product, repackaging it and expecting you to pay full price for the same game you bought just last year (i.e call of duty, sport franchises).

Now my transition from XP to windows 7 was mostly welcomed, as I had XP for a while and I do enjoy some of the new features that windows 7 brought with it, (even though alot of them I actually prefer how they were in XP, like ribbons, I hate ribbons give me my good old menu bar any day of the week)

So iam basically worried about a number of things,

1. Microsoft is known for shoving their new technologies down developers throats will they be doing this for windows 8 by increasing capabilities of their own products, while decreasing that of others, which is of great concern to me because I develop on windows but I use alot of non microsoft technologies.

2. I feel that microsoft has a bad habit of trying to hold peoples hand to much while computing, this is annoying for me because I as an experienced user know what Iam doing, and this "hand held" type environment I feel gets in the way of my productivity alot of times, and is major annoyance most of the time.

3. Will my current applications be directly affected by (1) should I worry about backwards compatibility?

4. How much new stuff will I have to learn in order to be able to accomplish the same task I did before? I believe as a programmer it is my duty to stay ontop of the latest in technology and familiarize myself to some degree or else I would be left in the dust.

Sorry if it sounds like Iam complaining but it is a big concern with me, when I hear news like this, especially when not alot of time has passed since the last OS upgrade. Thoughts and comments?

So iam basically worried about a number of things,

1. Microsoft is known for shoving their new technologies down developers throats will they be doing this for windows 8 by increasing capabilities of their own products, while decreasing that of others, which is of great concern to me because I develop on windows but I use alot of non microsoft technologies.

Other than your negative point of view, I see nothing to be worried about. Yes they will introduce new features, but the overall system will remain unchanged.

2. I feel that microsoft has a bad habit of trying to hold peoples hand to much while computing, this is annoying for me because I as an experienced user know what Iam doing, and this "hand held" type environment I feel gets in the way of my productivity alot of times, and is major annoyance most of the time.[/quote] Again, I see nothing to be worried about.

When it comes to global computer users, you are an outlier. You are an exception to the rule. The rank-and-file computer users need it. You are outnumbered, and the company is making the correct business decision to focus on it's main demographic. Note that you can turn off most things in Windows, and you even have the option to go to a text-only non-GUI mode if that is how you prefer to work. I don't recommend it, but it is present.

3. Will my current applications be directly affected by (1) should I worry about backwards compatibility?
[/quote] You can choose to take advantage of new features, or not. You simply need to make sure that the call is supported for that version of windows. This has always been the case, whether you noticed it nor not.

For example, XP introduced a new visual style, a bunch of graphical options, disk management, device management, and power management options (to name a few) that were not available before. If you chose to take advantage of them you needed to verify that you weren't on an earlier version, such as Win98 or Win2000.

The same for Windows Vista, which introduced functionality virtual disks, NTFS transactions, rights management, and more. If you chose to take advantage of them you need to verify you aren't running on an earlier version, like WinXP or Win2000.

The same for Windows Server 2008, which included a bunch of new features for policy management and error reporting, etc. If you chose to take advantage of them you need to verify that you aren't on an earlier version, like Vista or XP.

The same for Windows 7, which includes more graphical services, enhanced storage, biometric services, more file system changes, hardware profiling, and more. Again, you can use them or not, however you will.



There is nothing to be worried about with it, you will have plenty of warning before seeing a feature you use getting deprecated and then later removed.

4. How much new stuff will I have to learn in order to be able to accomplish the same task I did before? I believe as a programmer it is my duty to stay ontop of the latest in technology and familiarize myself to some degree or else I would be left in the dust.
[/quote]


They don't usually remove stuff that is in general use. So you should require zero additional learning to do exactly the same thing.

They generally introduce new features that were only available through external libraries, and also introduce better ways to do the same thing as you did before. That doesn't invalidate your old knowledge. For example, you could always access a file directly, load it all, and process it. However, your usage pattern may get better results using memory mapping of the file. Or you may be fine with the same old sequential processing of files, or your application may be able to benefit from scatter/gather operations on the disk. You may be able to use better techniques, but the old ones are still available to you.

Quit worrying so much.

It's the same update schedule as Apple. You could just skip it and wait for Windows 9?

Regarding your first point I've heard Microsoft is taking a new direction through HTML which probably means they're slowing their silverlight push even more.

About your second point not everyone is a power user. It's a good thing that Windows is intuitive. Windows 7 has like the cleanest install ever. Push the disk in and walk away.

Your third point about backwards compatibility is important. Microsoft tests most everything. You would not imagine the lengths they go to make things compatible. If it were me I'd switch over to a virtual machine system for backwards compatibility and drop everything in the newer versions.

MS, are frankly, the backwards compatibility kings. Unless you are relying on undocumented behaviour (and even then if you are big enough they will work around it for you!) going forward old things 'just work'.

Hell, it took a CPU change to kill 16bit programs in windows and that's down in a large part to the CPUs just not being able to go from 64bit to 16bit mode during operation.

(following isn't directed at Sirisian personally...)

Regarding your first point I've heard Microsoft is taking a new direction through HTML which probably means they're slowing their silverlight push even more.

Ah, probably the most misunderstood (and totally blown out of proportion thing) to happen so far; the 'HTML direction' is allowing what they call 'immersive programs' to be coded in HTM5+JS.

Of course due to some miscommunication various (really really really stupid) parts of the developer world have gone 'omg! wtf! MS are going JS only! WTF! I WONT BUY THIS!'; although to be fair if you are stupid enough to believe this is the case then the windows ecosystem is probably better off without you

(following isn't directed at Sirisian personally...)
[quote name='Sirisian' timestamp='1307996698' post='4822909']
Regarding your first point I've heard Microsoft is taking a new direction through HTML which probably means they're slowing their silverlight push even more.

Ah, probably the most misunderstood (and totally blown out of proportion thing) to happen so far; the 'HTML direction' is allowing what they call 'immersive programs' to be coded in HTM5+JS.

Of course due to some miscommunication various (really really really stupid) parts of the developer world have gone 'omg! wtf! MS are going JS only! WTF! I WONT BUY THIS!'; although to be fair if you are stupid enough to believe this is the case then the windows ecosystem is probably better off without you
[/quote]

Ah I was going to ask about that; glad to hear its nonsense.

The HTML and JS thing is actually one feature Iam excited about and looking foward to trying

[quote name='phantom' timestamp='1307998681' post='4822925']
(following isn't directed at Sirisian personally...)
[quote name='Sirisian' timestamp='1307996698' post='4822909']
Regarding your first point I've heard Microsoft is taking a new direction through HTML which probably means they're slowing their silverlight push even more.

Ah, probably the most misunderstood (and totally blown out of proportion thing) to happen so far; the 'HTML direction' is allowing what they call 'immersive programs' to be coded in HTM5+JS.

Of course due to some miscommunication various (really really really stupid) parts of the developer world have gone 'omg! wtf! MS are going JS only! WTF! I WONT BUY THIS!'; although to be fair if you are stupid enough to believe this is the case then the windows ecosystem is probably better off without you
[/quote]

Ah I was going to ask about that; glad to hear its nonsense.
[/quote]

[quote name='The_Neverending_Loop' timestamp='1307994703' post='4822893']
Now my transition from XP to windows 7 was mostly welcomed, as I had XP for a while and I do enjoy some of the new features that windows 7 brought with it, (even though alot of them I actually prefer how they were in XP, like ribbons, I hate ribbons give me my good old menu bar any day of the week)

so i am not the only one who does not particularly like the "Ribbon" Menu.
if only they added an option to use the "Classic" menu bar.

[/quote]

Ribbons can suck, but they really are quite a bit faster once you adapt to them. An old menu bar might have the slight edge when you know where every option is buried, but I find ribbon menus to be a lot more intuitive even as a power user. The first month using powerpoint/word/excel with ribbons sucked, but after that I haven't looked back. It's even better that a lot of the functionality that used to be inside popups buried 3 steps deep in some menus is readily accessible on a ribbon.

Setting themes and transitions in powerpoint is a good example.