Business & Technology | Microsoft reinvents flagship software — Windows 8 — for PCs and tablets | Seattle Times Newspaper
Stolen from Andrew Wee's facebook like a bossQ: How is Windows 8 different from Windows 7 and other previous versions of Windows?
A: Windows 8 — which is still just a code name — is the first version of Windows designed from the beginning to run on both PCs and Web tablets. It will have a touch-screen interface as well as the more traditional mouse/trackpad/keyboard interface.
Aside from the touch-screen interface, which computer makers can choose to incorporate, another noticeable difference will be the start screen, which will use "tiles" instead of icons.
That tile interface, called Metro, is similar to the one now used in Microsoft Windows Phone smartphones. The tiles can include real-time updates from applications and touching or clicking on the tiles launches the apps, which can be Web-powered or Web-connected. The interface should also allow for a faster, more fluid switching between running apps.