Microsoft's Executive Vice President of operating systems, Terry Myerson, recently told ZDNet in an interview that the desktop is part of the future of Windows, that it's absolutely a core experience. The news is refreshing given that all the Windows 8 advertising since before the platform's launch has seemingly been about the touchy Start Screen. That focus didn't change until desktop users lashed out and PC sales began to plummet.
"We actually value using the desktop. I feel highly productive using it. It's very familiar to me," he told ZDNet. "We plan -- (as) we talked about at the Build conference -- to bring modern apps to the desktop. We are going to have machines that have a great desktop experience."
When asked about all the rumors surrounding Windows RT, he said that Windows ARM processors have a future, and there's tremendous innovation in the ARM ecosystem. He believes that Intel has a fabulous future, that there's tremendous innovation going on with Intel as well.
But what about all that talk concerning the merging of Windows RT and Windows Phone? He said that Microsoft will have a great version of Windows on ARM. The team is working to determine what will really "delight" customers in all the form factors that will have ARM chips. Nice dodge, Mr. Myerson.
"I think the most important thing is the one developer platform across the Internet of things, phone, tablet, PC, Xbox, PPI (Perceptive Pixel touch displays), the cloud. One coherent, consistent excellent place, one way for developers to target the Windows ecosystem and delight our customers," he said.
Later on ZDNet, he brought up the topic of the Start Menu, which was shown during BUILD in April. He said that it was displayed to show developers that it was coming back, but right now he doesn't (or is unwilling to confirm) when it will arrive. We speculate that the Start Menu will arrive this fall in Windows 8.1 Update 2, or next Spring in Windows 9 "Threshold."
The interview also talked about wearables, which according to this interview, isn't really much of a topic. "With our Internet of Things work we are enabling our customers to build great stuff," he said.
