Zaim2

Another part is I think they're trying to drive adoption of the Google Wallet/Checkout payment system, which also has a beneficial effect to other parts of their ecosystem such as Youtube, Android/Google TV etc.

Not really. Currently there's the black navbar AND the product specific search. This change is making the current product specific search the universal navbar, so at the end of it you've stilled gained the space occupied by the black nav bar.

Matias Duarte seems pretty passionate about moving Android forward at least: http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/exclusive-matias-duarte-i...

Except last time I checked Android isn't bundled with existence as a human. The handsets aren't free the the public unless subsidized by contract, which is the same deal as competitors.

The only "free" part is licensing to OEMS, and they still need to pay for R&D for making physical devices. So that part has no bearing on OS-creators who also happen to manufacture their own devices like Apple and RIM.

Do you have links/sources?

I only know of Barnes & Noble and Motorola fighting against MS, afaik everyone else immediately settled.

So that they can peggle a Windows phone license as the better, cheaper alternative.

Well, they did have cross licensing agreement with Microsoft back in 2007, but that didn't cover telecommunications.

http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft%2C-Samsung-in-patent-swap-dea...

Maybe the they'll choose to go to court this time, as Samsung is well armed patent wise. MS' objective is clear: to make the cost of Android greater than the cost of a Windows phone license, so the "free" advantage is no longer is valid.

That's what they were going for. Too many people were tuning the top bar out for their liking probably. Now it's unmissable.

Ugh, assuming it's the same zrgiu who made Antivirus free, I really want to read what he has to say. That's what I get for being late. :(

Anybody mind reposting it in quotation marks if they happen to have it saved? Or if zrgiu himself could post of a summary of what he originally said, that would be grand.

From the AllthingsD interview (http://allthingsd.com/20110601/up-next-at-d9-microsoft-windo...):

4:57 pm: Could an OEM make a tablet in which the user would never see “traditional” Windows?

Larsen-Green: You can’t turn the desktop off. You can choose never to go there…but it’s always there.

4:59 pm: Likewise, by the way, you can’t really turn off the new Windows. It is the start screen.

Another quote from the Thisismynextliveblog(http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/Microsofts_Steven_Sinofsk...):

Walt: So, if I'm a developer. Am I confronted by a philosophical difference between an app that uses a mouse, or one that is for touch or for a tablet. You call this touch first, but in terms of the apps, if you're saying hey this is Windows. Then I have to figure out — it really affects the way I design my app

Julie: You design for touch, and then we translate the touch commands to mouse and keyboard.

Walt: And that won't seem clunky?

Julie: No.

Julie: You go through with the arrow keys, the mouse, using the Windows key...

Walt: You're keeping the Windows key?

Julie: Yes, that's how you get to Start.

So the Win8 start menu is the reverse of the current Windows 7 touch UI situation. It's a Touch UI added on to it, as opposed to the reverse.

Most people barely even touch the "All programs button" in the current Start menu as they can just Start-search or use a Pin/Desktop shortcut, so as long as this new Start menu has the Search/Run functionality baked you're missing NOTHING, and can just stay in desktop mode whilst barely touching start.

You realise that the new tablet UI REPLACES the Start menu and is mapped to the start button right so whenever you click start, that's what pops up? They spelled it out in the AllthingsD/Computex events, and also state as much in the press release.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/jun11/06-01...

With pinning/shortcuts, people barely use the "All Programs" part of the Start menu in the current Windows 7, so the only casualty is the start menu Search/Run, which will probably be re-implemented in the new start screen when you start typing on it.

I would've thought better tab management would be first priority, as nameless mountains are really grating. Tab groups can't come quickly enough.