Microsoft demonstrated its next version of Operating System code named Windows 8 at the D9 Conference Today. They claimed that the new version of the OS is a complete overhaul of the existing system, from the chip to the interface. The new OS architecture is designed in such a way that, a single version of the OS will scale from touch-only small screens to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

Windows-8-start-menu

The tile based new startup menu interface which replaces the Windows Start menu is a radical change from what we have see on Desktop Operating Systems. The design drew a lot from Windows Phone 7.

The tiles are live, meaning they update notifications from apps and the company promises a fluid and natural switching between applications. The interface is optimized for touch devices but the company says it works equally well with a mouse and a keyboard.

Windows 8 Preview

Recently companies in the Operating System market are investing a lot of time and resources in innovating the desktop experience. Canonical the company behind the most popular Linux distribution Ubuntu has released their new Unity interface followed by The Gnome Project with their Desktop Environment version 3.0, both drastically different from traditional desktop interfaces that we are used to.

Innovations and healthy competitions are good for the end users and we can hope all these efforts take us to the future of personal computing.