With Windows 8, businesses can have just one OS for every device

Unless you are living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the news that Microsoft has begun unveiling its next flavor of Windows, currently called Windows 8, but that could change. As a journalist wanting to be objective, I looked at the demos and thought, “It’s way too early to comment on my opinion about an OS I haven’t touched personally,” and I took the high road. Then I saw some criticism from a few colleagues. Now the gloves come off, and I say, “Let’s dance!”

What do we really know about Windows 8?

First, we know that the system requirements will not be more than what is required by Windows 7. That’s what Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division, said at the recent D9 conference. They’re welcome words for those who’ve splurged for new hardware for Windows 7 or are preparing to go that route in the future.

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Note that the minimum system requirements of Windows 7 are 1GHz or faster, 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1GB of RAM for the 32-bit OS and 2GB of RAM for the 64-bit OS, 16GB of available hard disk space for the 32-bit OS and 20GB of free space for the 64-bit OS, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or later driver.

We know that the interface is two-fold. One provides a Windows Phone 7 feel and one that follows the traditional Start button-oriented desktop UI. Everyone already knows the traditional desktop, so the focus is on the tablet-oriented, touch-only side (although there are desktop PCs whose screens are touch-capable too, and Windows 8’s touch UI will work on those).

The new interface has the tile-based Start screen of Windows Phone, although with more titles. These are live, so they present notifications and other information immediately. The interface can provide a touch keyboard — as well as a split keyboard, which makes more sense for those holding it by aligning keys to the right and left side. (Ironically, Apple this week said its forthcoming iOS 5 will have a similar split onscreen keyboard for iPads. It appears Apple is copying Microsoft here.)

For Intel-based systems, applications that run on Windows 7 will run on Windows 8, but ARM-based devices will not be able to run “legacy” Windows applications. But developers who work with Windows 8 will be assured of immediate cross-device support for their programs; everything from a tablet to the desktop will be able to work with the application, thanks to the unified OS across devices.

The Microsoft strengths don’t get the respect they deserve

With this strategy, Microsoft will be in the tablet game next year. Some have said it is too late, including my InfoWorld colleague Robert X. Cringely, who criticized Microsoft for not being at the front of the innovation pack. My response: Kinect — but those are apples and oranges in this fight.

I personally think it’s hard to be incredibly innovative when you’ve reached the size of Microsoft, yet I find the work it has done to establish Azure and the tremendous server-side solutions like SharePoint and Exchange 2010, among others, is worth a nod of respect. No, Microsoft didn’t develop Facebook, Amazon.com, Twitter, or Google. But should it be disrespected in trash talk because it didn’t? No, Microsoft has created both the most stable platform for corporate progress and one of the best video gaming platforms on the planet at the same time. Should we spit on Microsoft for not coming up with the first iPad? Come on, people.

It’s not who invents the thing per se. It’s who perfects it. For example, Apple took the idea of the PC from Xerox and made a hit with it, then Microsoft ran with it for a decade or more after that. Apple and others may have tablets in the market already, but there is obviously room for a new player and possible front-runner in this game. After all, the iPad is hardly perfect. Don’t believe me? Read my InfoWorld colleague Galen Gruman’s “Where the iPad lets you down: Top 12 complaints.”

Knowing that a third-party app or appliance that works on Windows 7 will also work on Windows 8 gains a huge sigh of relief from me. This was a kill point for Windows Vista. Granted, there were some issues with the OS itself, but Vista was mostly crushed because of negative press (often inaccurate) combined with many third-party vendors holding back and not creating the enhancements and drivers needed to run their apps or appliances. Shims didn’t always cut it, and people dug in with Windows XP — until now. Windows 8 removes that concern with its Windows 7 compatibility mode (for Intel-based devices), so it will be adopted more quickly.

Having the ability to immediately create applications that function across platforms is awesome. It’ll ensure a high volume of developer interest in working with Microsoft’s new OS because the customer base is already there and the reward for being able to code once, sell to any platform, is high.

There is some concern among developers that some of the buzz around Windows 8 relates to HTML5 and JavaScript development and not to .Net and Silverlight. Will Microsoft abandon its own initiatives and the developers who have jumped in to learn those platforms in the process? It’s not likely, but Microsoft unfortunately hasn’t responded to that fear just yet.

My wish list for Windows 8

One thing I’d love to see is for all desktop systems to run on a Type 1 (bare-metal) hypervisor. From the enterprise deployment side, that would make central management of this new deployment much easier. NxTop from Virtual Computer is already ahead in this game, and it is worth making friends with NxTop in preparation for Windows 8.

I’m also looking forward to the group policy side. For companies that are struggling to control the various device types in their organization (iPads, Androids, and so on), the next flavor of Windows Server should provide group policies that, out of the box, allow you to control people’s phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops through policy settings. Mac OS X Lion Server will do so for Apple devices when it is released next month, but you can bet it won’t handle the scale or complexity of an enterprise.

When it comes to Windows 8, remember that we are not looking at beta software yet, just demos. It’s much too soon to judge Windows 8, but I like the fact that Microsoft took its time on this version. It has watched everyone else make mistakes and it’s seen how to avoid doing the same. If Microsoft is smart — and it is — it will release a game-changing product.

This article, “With Windows 8, businesses can have just one OS for every device,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese’s Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.