Windows 8 is Offish
Reader stats
Article rating
No ratings yet
Reader rating appears publicly after enough eligible article ratings.
Rate this article
Sign in to rate this article.
Windows 8 is the official name of the next Windows product. This isn’t exactly ground-breaking news, but hey, it means we can put to rest any rumors. It will also only ship with three editions, so no more worrying about Pro, Deluxe, Ultimate, Student, yadda yadda yadda.
The cool thing about Windows 8 (as we’ve discussed before) is that you can use the Metro interface as a touchscreen and then seamlessly move to a keyboard and mouse. That’s going to be really critical to the user experience. According to Brandon LeBlanc on The Windows Blog, “All editions offer a no compromise experience.” You can read the full article here and definitely check out the features chart (which is an expansive look at all three versions). He goes on to write:
“For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro. For many consumers, Windows 8 will be the right choice. It will include all the features above plus an updated Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support and the ability to switch languages on the fly (more details on this feature can be found in this blog post),which was previously only available in Enterprise/Ultimate editions of Windows. For China and a small set of select emerging markets, we will offer a local language-only edition of Windows 8.
Windows 8 Pro is designed to help tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies. It includes all the features in Windows 8 plus features for encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows Media Center will be available as an economical “media pack” add-on to Windows 8 Pro. If you are an enthusiast or you want to use your PC in a business environment, you will want Windows 8 Pro.
Windows RT is the newest member of the Windows family – also known as Windows on ARM or WOA, as we’ve referred to it previously. This single edition will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors and will help enable new thin and lightweight form factors with impressive battery life. Windows RT will include touch-optimized desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For new apps, the focus for Windows RT is development on the new Windows runtime, or WinRT, which we unveiled in September and forms the foundation of a new generation of cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected apps of all kinds. For more details on WOA, we suggest reading this blog post which shares more detail on how we have been building Windows 8 to run on the ARM architecture.”
(According to Mary Jo Foley on ZDNet, there will actually be four versions, one of which is an Enterprise version, but most consumers won’t worry with that. And if you consider the Chinese language only version, then there are technically five, but the three that we care about are discussed above.)
About WheresBigFoot: WheresBigFoot is a part of Global Internet Marketing Company specializing in SEO web marketing and Pay per Click Advertising. Sign up an account today to advertise your website. Learn more about WheresBigFoot by visiting us at http://www.wheresbigfoot.com/
Article author
About the Author
Further reading
Further Reading
Article
What to Consider When Adopting Multi-Tenancy in Kubernetes?
Organizations are starting to scale their cloud native operations. And as they do, the inefficiency of managing dozens of isolated clusters has become an evident problem. As the clusters continue to sprawl, businesses must unite diverse workloads onto shared infrastructure. This is because companies need better resource utilization and centralized governance among other things. But it is imperative to remember that going from a single tenant to a multi-tenant environment need
March 12, 2026
Article
Product Engineering Services: Driving Faster Development for Startups
It has been for everyone to see the short product lifecycles and a pressing need for rapid technical scalability that have come to define the modern startup ecosystem. For early-stage companies, the challenge is no longer just conceptualizing a solution. But they must also carry it out with enough precision to withstand high market volatility and fierce competition. We know that internal teams concentrate on core business strategy and fundraising. That still leaves us with th
March 12, 2026
Article
Why Modern Facilities Rely on Environmental Monitoring and Remote Temperature Probes for Compliance and Control
In today’s regulated and data-driven environments, organizations are under constant pressure to ensure that temperature and environmental conditions remain within defined limits. Even small fluctuations can result in product loss, compliance violations, or operational downtime. As a result, many facilities are moving away from manual checks and standalone sensors and adopting comprehensive environmental monitoring solutions instead. An environmental monitor provides rea
March 5, 2026
Article
Role of Data Warehousing in Ensuring Data Quality and Consistency
Organizations have come to rely heavily on large amounts of data in today's competitive markets. But to what end? For starters, to inform strategic decisions and power machine learning models. It goes without saying that the value of these digital assets is completely dependent on the accuracy of the underlying data. So, when data is fragmented or inconsistent across departments, you will obviously have inaccurate reporting and operational inefficiencies at your hands. This c
March 2, 2026