During the Build Developer Conference in California, Microsoft revealed that both Silverlight and .Net are not dead. Instead, those two platforms will be utilized to write classic and desktop apps for Windows 8, rather than the new Metro styled apps, which is Windows 8’s primary focus.
At the conference, we learned that there are two types of applications that can be written and run on Windows 8. The first, referred to as a “Desktop” application, are simply applications that are created and can be accessed by clicking on the Desktop tab in Windows 8. These apps are not immersive and have the old school look and feel. For example, Adobe’s Photoshop.
The second type of application that Windows 8 will have is referred to as “Metro style.” We have learned about this style of interface over the past few months due to numerous leaked information and screenshots. Most recently, Steven Sinofsky over at Building Windows 8 blog gave us some insight on what we can expect with Metro UI. Developers can write Metro style apps using C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, HTML5/Javascript, or XAML.
Microsoft sees Metro UI as the future. In fact, Microsoft wants Windows 8 to be something for everyone. The chart above showcases the design languages and application types that will run on Windows 8.
