Windows 8 Windows Blue to be named Windows 8.1

[kemical]

Mary Jo foley a Microsoft watcher and journalist has wrote an article giving Windows Blue a new name:

Microsoft officials supposedly have decided on the final name for Windows Blue. The final decision, one of my sources told me, is that it will be Windows 8.1. The client version of Blue, codenamed Windows Blue, is a refresh of Windows 8. It is expected to be released to manufacturing around August of this year. As I've blogged a few times, Microsoft is planning to position Blue as part of the Windows 8 wave, not as Windows 9.

This also further backs up the idea that Microsoft will not be releasing any major new Operating systems but instead will release yearly or half yearly updates starting with 8.1 then 8.2 and so on.
Read the full article here:
Microsoft's Windows Blue looks to be named Windows 8.1 | ZDNet

 

[Ertha]

this might be really2 smart idea

 

[Mitchell_A]

Well It was a nice theory but MS did shoot themselves in the feet on a couple of things. They ignored the obvious fact that traditional users don't want to relearn how to use Windows all over again. The other bungle was the app store wasn't ready when the beta releases came out and many of the apps are still junk. First impressions are an important factor in marketing and the average desktop user hates the new look and business will avoid it like the plague.
Joe

that's provide me with a little inspiration to start a new thread on why people hate the metro start screen. Ill conduct a pole and I can almost guarantee nobody will be able to express any truly valid reason for why they dislike it, which comes back to the statement I've been making all along that people hate change.

As for the app store, Microsoft can't have 100 000 apps in at launch, that's simply not possible. Android and iOS bith started from the bottom. Actually, the Windows and Windows Phone stores have the fastest initial growth in comparison.

 

[Mike]

that's provide me with a little inspiration to start a new thread on why people hate the metro start screen. Ill conduct a pole and I can almost guarantee nobody will be able to express any truly valid reason for why they dislike it

I don't think the product should be called "Windows" if everything is a side-scrolling, tiled, full screen interface. Maybe "Tiles 1.0". Is that a valid reason? Fortunately, Stardock bailed me out. I also don't want to type or swipe my fingers on a 26-40" screen. When I can buy a desk that turns into a computer screen and can recharge the batteries to my cellphone, like in the early Microsoft Surface commercials, maybe I will look at it seriously. The problem is I had to pay around $10 USD from a third party company to restore the Start Menu (a truncated feature that has existed for decades), and there is a capability to run every single Modern UI app in a window on the desktop, if you don't have a touch screen. Why would you deprive your customers of that, by design? As I have said from the beginning, a simple dialogue box during the first start-up should ask you if you want to use the new Start Screen, given the fact that if you don't have a scroll wheel on your mouse, it's time to enjoy some pure agony.

No company into real productivity will touch this yet. It has a learning curve and it involves how to make your entire computing experience look like a cellphone. The interface, itself, was admittedly designed to work like "at the subway". Try riding the A-train at 3 AM. For some people thats what this is like - especially given the fact that many established business professionals are still using Microsoft Works out of sheer ignorance. The curve is too steep for business and it is too regrettable for those of us who know how to use a command processor/shell.

 

[Mitchell_A]

As I have said from the beginning, a simple dialogue box during the first start-up should ask you if you want to use the new Start Screen, given the fact that if you don't have a scroll wheel on your mouse, it's time to enjoy some pure agony.

Interesting you mention this. The Verge is reporting today that they may at least add the option to boot to desktop rather than the metro interface, but of course will not eliminate metro. Id take anything the Verge says about MS with a grain of salt however. Windows 8.1 will include boot to desktop option to bypass 'Metro' interface | The Verge

 

[Mike]

Microsoft's Windows 8 Plan B(lue): Bring back the Start button, boot to desktop | ZDNet

 

[davehc]

The ZDnet is a Mary Foley item. I have long felt that her "My sources" have been "The Verge". The items always appear at the same time, worded a little differently. So, like Mitchell, I take it with a pinch of salt. I do hope they have it right, this time though.

 

[Joe S]

If I remember right I don't think MS intended to do a service pack for Windows 8. They intended to charge for the updated versions that came after instead.
Joe

 

[Mitchell_A]

If I remember right I don't think MS intended to do a service pack for Windows 8. They intended to charge for the updated versions that came after instead.
Joe

Correct. It's also rumored that blue will be free, with subsequent releases coming with a price tag. Considering it's supposed to add some of these rumored vital features, I think that's completely fair. And if I can pay $40 per update or whatever it may be rather than $200 every 3 years for a whole new version of Windows, I'll take it.