With Windows 8 due to arrive on 26 October, many businesses are unsure of how much their IT ecosystem will need to change - if at all - in order to embrace the operating system's new 'Metro' interface and the significant changes Microsoft has made to the platform's underlying architecture.
"The good news is, for businesses that have used the Windows operating system for years, there's nothing to fear," says Traci Maynard, Microsoft business unit manager at Tarsus Technologies.
"In fact," she continues, "one of the first overriding facts that Stephen Sinofsky, Microsoft's 'Windows Boss', highlighted when unveiling the operating system to the development community last year was that Windows 8 will run every piece of software that Windows 7 does, and in some cases, do a better job of it.
"That's because," Maynard explains, "even though the Metro user interface is the part of the operating system that will be placed in the spotlight, Windows 8 still has a classic desktop environment that's perfect for applications that require precision input from a mouse or higher-resolution graphics.
"And even though this classic desktop environment looks exactly like Windows 7, within the context of Windows 8, it's viewed like 'just another application'.
"As such," she says, "it lacks the start button that Windows 7 veterans would have gotten used to. This means that all applications, regardless of whether they run in Metro or the classic Windows desktop, will now be launched from the Metro interface."
Maynard says it's good to know that even though users will need to embrace the new, slick and stylish 'Metro' interface, the classic Windows 7 look and feel is still around, so users have a familiar environment in which to run their legacy applications.
Apart from this one very obvious change, the improvements that have been made in Windows 8 will be largely masked from users.
"If they're perceptive, however, they're likely to notice a healthy performance boost over Windows 7 on the same hardware and improvements to the already stable platform that Windows 7 is," she says.
Most importantly, she says users will have the freedom to run the same applications - regardless of mode - across desktops, notebooks and new touch-enabled/keyboardless notebooks; and Metro style applications across all of these platforms, as well as tablets and smartphones.
"It's a pretty powerful value proposition," she says, "and one that will only simplify the lives of IT departments, which makes for a refreshing change from the norm," she concludes.
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Tarsus Technologies
With more than 27 years' of experience in the ICT industry, Tarsus is the leading value-added distributor in South Africa, specialising in the supply of the world's foremost PC and peripheral hardware brands to the local reseller channel.
Tarsus strives to meet the channel's needs for credit funding, stock availability and efficient logistics, ensuring resellers are able to deliver the highest-quality service to their customers, focus on support and compile the best overall solutions for their end-user customer base at the lowest possible cost.
The company prides itself on its flexibility, adaptability, knowledge, skills and successful track record combined with an industry-leading ability to manage large rollouts. These are the reasons Tarsus has consistently been rated as the top distributor in the country by international vendors, resellers and the IT media alike.
With its strong commitment to the South African channel, Tarsus is able to not only make the reseller channel more efficient, but more importantly, it plays a vital role in dramatically reducing the costs of doing business in the local ICT market.
Tarsus distributes a range of products from the world's leading manufacturers, including Acer, APC, Cisco, Dell, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Meissner, Microsoft, OKI Printing Solutions and Samsung.
Tarsus' head office is situated in Johannesburg with branches in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Nelspruit. Tarsus has also extended its footprint into Africa with branches in Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius.
More information about Tarsus is available at: http://www.tarsus.co.za.
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