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by seanmcdirmid 5019 days ago
I'm aware of this post, but as far as I've read, the model is applicable to Metro/WinRt only; I've heard of no plans at all for desktop. I also haven't heard much goodness yet about running Windows 8 on retina macbook pros. Does Visual Studio 2012 ship in a way that can handle 200%? Photoshop for Windows? I've always assumed they would do this for tablet, but what about high-end desktop-only apps? I'm sure it happens eventually, 2X pixel laptops will go on the market, but the transition sounds like it will be a bit painful.

Disclaimer: also work for Microsoft, but all my info about product plans comes from devouring public information.
1 comments
dpark 5019 days ago
Ah, yes. For desktop, it's fuzzier (perhaps literally?). I haven't played with a Retina display on Windows 8. One of the PMs I work with has one that he purchased, though, and he mentioned that Windows automatically scales up the desktop (i.e. in Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display) on the Retina display. I don't know how well that works, though.

I'm not sure what the plan is for desktop apps on high-res devices. Hopefully the plan isn't "we'll live with tiny text" or "we'll live with fuzzy graphics", but it could be one of the two.

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seanmcdirmid 5019 days ago
Well, it sounds like a hard problem. Reducing the resolution is not a satisfying solution, even if it worked without artifacts, you'd still be wasting your expensive screen. The OS and apps would have to support the higher resolution to sell the hardware, and the hardware needs to exist to drive the software changes; chicken meet egg!

It is nice that this is fixed in WinRT, but we can't do the high-end productivity apps in WinRT (e.g., Visual Studio or Photoshop with plugins). I actually wouldn't mind using high-end productivity apps in WinRT (I maximize most of my apps already in desktop), and I hope in the future that will happen.

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