Windows 8将成为PC世界的救世主？

随着微软(Microsoft)在全球开发人员面前揭示下一代 Windows 操作系统。现在，世界各地的工程师们都开始重头检视它、编程应用程序，并检验程序bug。 我们尚未得知 Windows 8 (顺道一提，这仍是代号而非该操作系统的正式名称)的正发布日期时程表。但业界有关该操作系统确切发行日期的谣言满天飞，包括了从今年稍晚到明年底，甚至有人揣测会更晚发布。 然而，在这些预测中，即使是最可信那一些，也只不过是凭经验而做出的推断。某些情况下，有些甚至只是胡乱猜测罢了。 迄今我们并不知道搭载 Windows 8 的PC、平板计算机(Tablets)和其它产品何时会在商店中开始贩售。我们所知道的是，当这一切确实发生时，将会是电子产业的一个巨大驱动力量，它将推动大规模的PC换机潮，并让许多今天的平板怀疑论者冒险尝试。 上周，微软Windows 暨 Windows Live部门总裁Steven Sinofsky表示，微软是在已经充份准备好的情况下发布 Windows 8 ，而非在准备好之前就率先发布。“我们会在产品完全就绪时才发布，不会因为赶着上市而急就章，”Sinofsky说。

微软Windows和Windows Live部门总裁史蒂文辛诺夫斯基（Steven Sinofsky），正在周二举行的Build大会上演讲MKpesmc

Sinofsky 于上周的微软 BUILD 大会上发表演说。这次的活动，让Windows 8看起来似乎变成了自豆泥(refried beans)问世以来最好的一项产品。而它也确实如此。 在微软 BUILD 上展示的 Windows 8 是一种极具吸引力的产品，与之前的Windows 操作系统相比，Windows 8以更质朴、更流畅和更令人信服的方式，支持触摸屏，以及渲染‘地铁风格’(metro style)的接口和应用程序。该操作系统提供了全新的直观特性，让使用者得以简化其设备和信息的应用。它还充份运用了统一可扩展固定接口(UEFI)规范的优势，提供安全、迅速的激活。 但它仍然是一项处于正在进行式中的工作。好几次，在BUILD大会中，当展示人员想展现Windows 8的功能时，这个操作系统便会出现bug。微软 Windows 使用者体验团队项目管理总监Jensen Harris承认，该操作系统中的某些部份的确还很粗糙。 微软CEO Steve Ballmer称 Windows 8 是该公司有史以来风险最高的一项赌注，这想必是因为在后iPad (post-iPad)与后Android (post-Android)世代，Windows将处于更复杂的竞争态势。Harris在今年度的BUILD中对与会开发人员表示，由于全球极其庞大的Windows PC数量，因此，这次的释出将是“有史以来最巨大的一次发展机会”。 “你们当中有些人想致富，”Harris说。“也有些人想开发应用程序给数以亿计的人使用。” 在商业版Windows 8正式释出之前，微软力求对该操作系统的一切都做到一丝不苟。当然，这是常识，从Windows 1至7都是如此。 但在这种情况下，该公司看来更加谨慎。Windows 8的确很不一样。随着支持 ARM-based芯片、触控屏幕，并导入了更加直观、更吸引人的使用者体验，Windows 8代表了微软能否在呈爆炸性成长的媒体平板领域中取得商机，以及阻止使用者拋弃Windows的最后机会──许多使用者已经愈来愈习惯苹果的iOS和Google的Android了。 编译： Joy Teng 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文： World waits on Windows 8，by Dylan McGrath

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{pagination} World waits on Windows 8 Dylan McGrath The developer release of the next version of Microsoft Windows is out in the world. Developers are—right now—working with it, kicking the tires, writing applications, finding bugs. We still have no timeline on the official release date for Windows 8 (still the codename, not the official name, of the operating system, by the way). Rumors—as rumors tend to do—abound, with prognostications for the OS's street date ranging from late this year to late next year, or even later. But even the most credible of these predictions are nothing more than educated guesses. In some cases, they are nothing more than un-educated wild guesses. We simply don't know when PCs, tablets and other products running Windows 8 will hit store shelves. What we do know is that, when that does occur, it will be a huge driver for the electronics industry, spurring a massive PC refresh cycle and prompting many heretofore tablet skeptics to take the plunge. Earlier this week, Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, said, in essence, that Microsoft will release Windows 8 when it's ready, and not before. "We are going to be driven by the quality and not by a date," Sinofsky said. Sinofsky's comments came in a keynote address earlier this week at Microsoft Build. The event was—no pun intended—built from the ground up to make Windows 8 seem like the best thing since refried beans. And that is exactly what it did. Microsoft Build showed Windows 8 to be a very compelling product, introducing support for touch screens and rendering "metro style" interfaces and applications in a much more pristine, fluid and compelling way than Windows has in the past. The OS offers new, intuitive features that can streamline the way users use their devices and organization information. It also takes advantage of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) spec to offer secure and rapid boot-up. But it remains a work in progress. Several times during Build, bugs in the OS came to the forefront when presenters had trouble getting Windows 8 to do what they wanted it to. At one point, jokingly asking if Microsoft mentioned that the version of Windows 8 released Tuesday (Sept. 13) was a developer pre-release, Jensen Harris, director of program management for the Windows User Experience Team, acknowledged that the OS is in some ways still very rough around the edges. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has referred to Windows 8 as the riskiest product bet in the company's history, presumably because of the ramifications for Windows' popularity in the post-iPad, post-Android world. This week, Harris told developers at Build that the release is also the "single biggest developer opportunity in the history of the world" because of the sheer number of Windows PCs. "Some of you are going to get rich," Harris said. "Some of you are going to build apps that are going to be used by hundreds of millions of people." Microsoft is right to wait until all the Ts are crossed and Is are dotted before releasing the commercial version of Windows 8. This, of course, is just common sense, and would have been applicable to the release of Windows 1 through 7 as well. But it seems especially prudent in this case. Windows 8 truly is different. With support for ARM-based chips, touch screens and a more intuitive, compelling user experience, Windows 8 represents the last best chance for Microsoft to truly get in on the explosive growth projected for media tablets and stem the tide of users showing the willingness to forsake the Windows experience they've grown accustomed to in favor of Apple's iOS and Google's Android.