Microsoft and others have tried this before, but never with an OS like Windows 8 so not really fair to compare. I think they have a huge opportunity over Apple at the moment, they have unified the interfaces on all their devices, and familiarity and application sharing will be beneficial overall for the ecosystem. So long as the interface is good enough for a tablet OS then they are ahead in terms of strategic technical direction of unifying the platforms. This is something Apple probably won't or possibly can't do between iPad, Phone and Desktop. The new hardware out there is simply amazing, computers no longer need to have a keyboard, but the keyboard can be used to make an ultra book, or extend the battery life of the removable screen/tablet.
What Microsoft has done is not to obsolete iPad, but provide a very good alternative to the iPad, with many hardware solutions to pick and choose from.
I have upgraded my primary laptop to Windows 8, an older laptop and have been using Surface RT over the weekend. The more I use it the more I am liking it, and can't imagine going back to Windows 7 for my own personal use. My review of the Surface RT would definitely be more positive from the Verge's review in many ways. I have some complaints on some of the apps like Music app seems a bit buggy on Surface, but I'm sure they will fix that over time. My biggest complaint is no native app for Amazon music/video, hopefully they will add that. I can still use cloud player but I would prefer to have a native app like they have on the Fire.
As a test I handed Surface to my Wife with the Travel application open which is a very nice application. She didn't even need to be told how to use the thing, it was so natural, and intuitive. Internet explorer is really well done for touch, not a single hint of chrome on the screen, just text unless you use some simple gestures to pull up address bar and quick launch icons.
I think the opportunity that MS has vs Apple is the large Windows base, now rather that translates to those that want a device that is a hybrid of being a laptop, but is really a tablet. I guess we'll see. I think the Pro version coming in Jan has a much better chance of this than the RT version because it will be able to run native windows programs though from the desktop and not the new environment.
I've been using this OS all weekend long and I feel disjointed and disconnected. There isn't any logical flow to the way the OS operates. There are inconsistencies depending on rather you are in the desktop or the new environment.
Overall I like the new setup, but it needs a lot of work and I am sure over time they will tweak it. I think the bottom line is they had to start somewhere and I'll admit is a fair start. I have been reading a lot of the end user reviews on Youtube and many are complaining about the Surface having a lot of lag and taking a long time to load programs. I think much of the loading issues is like any new program until you open it and some of caches it does take longer.
By the way you do realize that with Mountain Lion Apple has melded the desktop environment of OS X to work in many ways like the iOS versions. Everything works in unison with each other. So, I can be on iPhone, iPad, iPod and multiple Mac computers and everything is in perfect sync. Many of the programs like Mail, Reminders, Calendar, Bookmarks, Photo Stream they pretty much all the same across the board. There is even lunchpad, which is a cool start up menu of sorts that you can lunch programs from. Granted these are live tiles. I think both Apple and MS understand that to some degree you need a unified system across mobile and desktop/laptop.. They have just taken different directions on who to get there. I think many in the Windows world would have rather MS do it the way Apple is rather than forcing a whole new environment on them.
Will this new OS energize a rather flat PC sector right now? Another question that I guess we will find out over the next few months.
Just to clarify I think MS did the right thing releasing Windows 8. I just feel they could have done it different and ended up with the same results, without forcing end user to work out of two environments.
The Surface to use is a no brainer if you are just going to IE and other things that in tiles. Its the more elaborate things that will take some getting use too. I mean we gave an iPad to my 94 your old aunt who uses it to Facetime and Text with the grandkids. It would be rather disappointing if your wife would have had issues using the Surface to do the simplest of things.
