OEMs Getting Windows 8.1 RTM Next Month
OEMs will get the Windows 8.1 RTM in late August.
On Monday during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Houston, Texas, Windows CMO and CFO Tami Reller announced that Windows 8.1 RTM will be available for OEM partners in late August. That means OEMs will be able to get the updated platform and begin preparing their new and current Windows 8 devices just in time for the holidays. Additional details regarding consumers and other customers on how to get Windows 8.1 will be provided in the coming months.
The update will bring a portfolio of improvements including the ability to bring the desktop background to the Start screen, making the transition from one to the other both less jarring and less disconnected. The Start button is also making a return, but it won't feature the familiar Start menu but rather bring users back to the Start screen. The mail app will also see an improvement among other much-needed updates and enhancements to the Windows 8 platform.
According to Brandon LeBlanc, Jensen Harris joined Reller on the conference stage and demoed a new Reading List app. It allows users to share articles from the web and content from other apps to read later using data that "roams" across Windows devices thanks to SkyDrive. He also demoed a search feature for music integrated with Xbox Music where users can share a webpage and the Xbox Music app will create a playlist according to what it pulls from that page.
"Jensen demoed for the first time new technology built into Windows 8.1 called Miracast that streams HD video and audio over Wi-Fi to another display like a TV," LeBlanc said. "With Surface Pro, he essentially turned a TV into a whiteboard with the OneNote app."
In addition to the Windows 8.1 news, Reller also introduced the User Experience Design Competency launching in January 2014. This will provide a way for partners to train their designers and get recognized for their expertise with the Microsoft Design Language. She also revealed a program called TouchWins, a new commercial channel incentive for authorized distributors and reseller partners who sell featured Windows devices.
Reller said at the conference that Microsoft now has more than 20 million enterprise evaluations and that Windows 8 has logged 60 billion hours of use. Even more, new customer activation continues at a consistent pace. Microsoft released a preview version of Windows 8.1 to customers just two weeks ago, presented as an update in Windows Store and as a downloadable ISO.
If the next windows(9?) scheduled for 2014 keeps up the same trend as 8 did, I'll delete my windows partition which is mostly used for some games, as most older titles run just fine under wine, and the new AAA titles are not even worth pirating.
If there is a win9 and it looks/behaves like this pile of poo(yes, even 8.1) then I'm outta here. I can't just break ~70 employees' decades of start bar use, I can't force them to learn this and they won't either, not to mention the untold hours of lost productivity and that translates to lost money. WHY should I give money to lose money??? We also have in house software that is unusable on this thing, and even commercial software that refuses to run on this pile of dung.
Companies don't like developing for 5% market share...
To be honest, if you don't like the modern UI it is completely effortless to ignore. Other than a few games for my son, I never even see the modern UI.
Every program and game I've tried to run as expected. The ignorance on these articles about windows 8 grows tiring.
One last time: MODERN UI is EASY to ignore/not use. Other than that, everything else is pretty intuitive.
Thats the problem, the fact you have to install programs to make the OS look like previous generations is a mistake. MS would of won everyone back over if they simply gave people the CHOICE to use the new UI or the old standard desktop/start menu. Having to install extra software doesnt make it ok