Windows 8 to come in just three flavours

Microsoft aiming to simplify OS after years of complexity.
The firm has said in a blog that the next version of its desktop operating system will come as Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT.
The latter replaces “Windows on ARM or WOA” and “will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors.”

This simplification runs counter to the Microsoft tradition, which has been to fragment its products into numerous different flavours.
But the re-think represents yet another way in which Microsoft is seeking to position the new OS as the biggest change to Windows since it launched Win 95 in, er, 1995.
The new software borrows heavily from WinPho, in that it features live tiles, swiping and other elements of the phone OS. In this sense, it's part of a wider trend for computer OSs to be designed such that they can run across many splintering form factors - phones, tablets, in-car, PC, TV.
It can now be downloaded in beta now, ahead of its summer launch. 3m developers have already done so.

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