It should be an exciting time for Microsoft. It's pushing customers into a new era, setting aside the typical desktop and focusing on a touch-oriented interface. It's ruffling the feathers of paying customers, analysts and critics alike, changing the way they compute on a daily basis.
But the Windows overhaul – the first since Windows 95 – is a necessary risk if Microsoft wants to compete in a touch-based world. Windows was once a powerhouse for Microsoft when the PC platform dominated personal computing. However, smartphones and tablets, led by the iPhone and iPad, have changed the way people work.
Daddy Desktop, or rather Microsoft founder Bill Gates, is just as excited. He admitted that he's already using the modern Windows revision, and is very pleased thus far. Naturally Gates is going to say something of that nature -- anything else would simply be bad business.
"Hardware partners are doing great things to take advantage of the features," Gates told The Associated Press in an interview. "It'll be a big deal, a very exciting product."
Recently Steve Ballmer said in an interview that 2012 will be Microsoft's "epic year," comparing the release of Windows 8 to the introduction of the first PC.
"Windows 95 was certainly the biggest thing in the last 20 years until now," he said. "I think Windows 8 certainly surpasses it. It's a little hard to compare things like the founding (of the company) and the introduction of the first popular PC and the system that popularized it, but it's at that scale."
Ballmer was then asked about what he's going to do if Windows 8 doesn't catch on. He responded by saying the platform will do great, dismissing any doubts. "I'm not paid to have doubts," he mused.
