Windows 10 is progressive but OS X Yosemite is a little ahead

The new Windows 10 ... not Windows 9

When I was browsing through some tech videos to catch up I landed up on the Windows 10 video when they announced it for the first time where they explained why 'Windows 10' and not 'Windows 9' for the name of the successor of 'Windows 8'. The presentation was very smooth, very effective with no hiccups or any embarrassing moments that typically shows up during Microsoft demos, like it happened even during Cortana demo (the 'Siri' for Windows Phone). It was interesting that Joe Belfiore even warned that there could be some rough edges before starting the first Windows 10 demo

Essentially based on Satya Nadella's direction of "Mobile First, Cloud First" strategy Microsoft wants to develop the OS ground up and hence it is not really a successor of 8 (hence it is 10), at the same time it has to be familiar to its hundreds of millions of users so it also looks just like the old OS, so it is very different also not so different at the same time.

What's Windows 10

Fundamentally Windows 10 provides an unified experience across regular Windows 'application' and the new Store 'Apps' (a.k.a Modern Apps a.k.a Full Screen Apps...Microsoft need to work on a better naming strategy) instead of taking the users to two different worlds like Windows 8 did. To some extent they tried to address it in Windows 8.1 update, but Windows 10 takes the unified experience very seriously and really merges both the worlds very well. The full screen apps actually run under a non-full screen mode along with other windows application. Here is a list of it's key features:

• Start button makes a come back
• Start button also has 'Start Screen' view
• Multiple Desktop support (finally!)
• Better snapping windows, now works in corners so you can dock 4 windows without overlapping, works with a very nice user experience
• Enhanced application switcher (the Alt-Tab switcher)
• Command prompt that support Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for cut paste

In Pic: The app switcher screen and the multiple windows switcher

Overall a very nice UI and not trying to push users for a steep learning curve, they emphasize 'new yet familiar' concept. So really nice set of features to look forward to

But, Microsoft's limitation is its own 'success'

While Microsoft announces its new operating system release as ground up, aligning with new strategy and so on, it can also be termed as just an upgrade with a new UI to please those who were upset with the Windows 8's new start screen and sort of admitting that it cannot make people forget the start button.

Microsoft is finding it hard to introduce anything that is radically new due to its own success, which till date enjoys a market share of over 90% for desktop OS. It is forced to maintain the need for its users to be 'familiar' with anything new they introduce, as a result nothing looks all that new, forcing them to take only incremental steps or worse even - rollback some ideas they have introduced

While it enjoys a 90% desktop OS market share, the usage of desktop itself is on the decline, for instance this year there will be more people accessing internet over mobile devices than desktops. So how is Microsoft addressing the mobile revolution? It says by introducing 'continuum' which basically switches from mouse friendly UI to a touch friendly UI, that too with a dialog to accept the switch, which truly seems so old school, where nothing happens without a user action or a dialog box popping up

What Apple is doing right with its OS X

Comparing it with what Apple is doing with its latest OS release the OS X Yosemite, they made the OS look more like its Mobile OS (iOS), but that is not it, it is much more than an UI revamp, for instance they introduced the concept of 'Continuity' (sounds similar to Continuum), which actually unifies its mobile OS with the desktop OS. When the phone is close to a mac desktop, the phone can be answered using the desktop rather then reaching out to the phone and if you are editing a document on a laptop (of course on a mac book) and you switch to an iPad, the cursor will blink at the exact position where you left off on the laptop and you can continue to work on the document using an iPad.

Apple is focusing on unifying the experience at operating system level across mobile devices and desktops actually handing over tasks from one to another in a seamless manner and without any user prompts. While iOS lags behind Android in global market share, they have something that Google does not have, which is the desktop OS that is well adopted (Chrome OS adoption is still insignificant) and they are unifying the experience. In a way headed in the right direction to address the declining desktop usage and when desktop is in use, the accompanying mobile device works along with it

Microsoft on the other hand enjoys complete reign over the desktop OS and has a Mobile OS as well, but unfortunately not taking advantage and instead moving ahead in incremental steps rather than making some ground breaking innovation.

Finally ...

Microsoft is trying really hard to win its users hearts to satisfy its current user base, like making everything that was in Windows 7 and Windows 8 also being available in Windows 10 making the OS really 'familiar' but in the process are they really finding it hard to move ahead? I have been a sincere user of Windows user for the past 20 years, but Mac is starting to tempt especially the way it works along side the mobile devices.