I wanted to talk about Windows 8 today. Despite lots of talks we had about Macs, iPads and web during last months, most of the manufacturing companies are running their business on Windows. Thinking about this, I took a look on a news stream coming from Micorosft these days about new look and feel of Windows 8 called Metro UI. Microsoft just released a new developer build of Windows 8. You can take a look on the following video preview.
For those of you thinking about development of different applications, I recommend to go a bit deeper and read more about some architectural technological transformations that happen behind the scene of new Windows 8. I was reading ZDNet article – Microsoft Metro Proves the PC is dead. Take your few minutes and read this article. Now, take a look on the following picture.
If you are a developer, you can note that everything “blue” on this picture represents the “old school Windows” and all new stuff is coming with Metro UI and WinRT API.
CAD, PDM, PLM and platform architecture
A big number of CAD, PDM and PLM applications, products and platforms written during the last decades are relied on existing Windows architecture, including a significant portion of backward compatibilities. Windows 8 wiil enforce vendors to start thinking about next client applications. It will be the time vendors can decide to re-build their products on Win8 or they can move out and think about other platforms.
What is my conclusion? In the beginning of the year, I was talking about the end of Microsoft dominance in one of my blogs. It becomes clear that Microsoft itself is taking steps that will end the mainstream Windows architecture used by multiple vendors. It is still long time before Windows 8 will be released. However, it will be interesting to see vendors’ reaction and steps to align future CAD, PDM and PLM client applications. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
