I love Windows 7. But I don’t like Windows 8 at all. Microsoft’s attempt to turn computers of all sizes and colours into what pretty much amounts to iOS devices really rubs me raw, as someone who prefers the power and elegance of the command line, or the choices and configurability of recent versions of the operating system.

While Windows 8 is looking to be a win for the computer-illiterate masses, who often don’t do much more than browse the web and watch videos outside of work, it appears ominous to many developers such as myself. Win8’s approach to computing doesn’t make much sense in the context of desktop systems for business, and the locked-down idea of WinRT runs counter to everything I’ve ever felt positively about computers. My systems aren’t tablets nor smartphones, but that’s what Microsoft is trying to turn everything into.

Metro UI: Plays Poorly With Others

On first glance, Metro UI makes for a nice, clean way of accessing programs and data on the computer. However, this is only so long as you use Metro applications. Desktop applications (i.e. practically everything you’d use for work, playing games, or watching enhanced videos) won’t have any access to the Start screen, no matter what.

WinRT: Smartphone-style Lockdown

Regardless of whether you develop new style applications in .NET, HTML and Javascript, or good old-fashioned C++, don’t expect to get any serious power that you might be used to. About the only people who won’t feel needlessly will be web developers trying out WinRT’s Javascript support. The rest of us will miss out on interprocess communication, database support, file system support, and many of the other things we rely on and take for granted.

On the upside, the enforced asynchronous model will result in applications that at least respond better. However, don’t expect native code apps to work too well at first, seeing how C++ doesn’t exactly have special support for async development.

The lack of file system support really goads me, as I like to know where my files are, and keep them around for easy of backup, sending to others, or versioning. If the only file stores available to applications are isolated, that means I can’t get to them except through the applications themselves.

ARM Application Support: Go Metro or Go Home

The lack of support for the desktop mode on ARM ensures that such devices will be limited to phone, tablet, and netbook forms. (Well, maybe just the first two — who still uses netbooks anyway?) You certainly won’t be able to use ARM-powered Windows devices for mainstream games, serious line-of-business work, or even proper editions of Office.

What I do Like About Windows 8

Despite my above grousing, there are some things in Windows 8 that I like seeing. First, the move to a more functional ribbon interface for Explorer shows that Microsoft has been paying attention to the desktop UX, probably for business customers. Hopefully this won’t be the last version with the desktop UX. Second, I’ve yet to hear if native (non.NET) XAML-based interfaces will be possible for non-Metro apps, but if they are, that would make me pretty happy.

For the most part, though, I am not at all comfortable with what Windows 8 promises to be. If Microsoft’s plan is to be more iOS than iOS, I can certainly see a switch to a more traditional *nix environment in my future, and just keep Windows around for gaming only.