The Windows 8 vs. Windows RT confusion

Compared to past tablet hardware support, Windows RT is leaps and bounds ahead of previous versions of Windows as far as interacting with your PC using your hands or a digitizer thanks to the touch-first UI. It is a welcome upgrade, but the new operating system is not without its own growing pains and quirks.
Windows RT is being marketed along with Windows 8 devices, but despite the obvious visual similarities the underlying software is quite different  Mainly, while both versions have the Metro Start screen with Windows Store apps and the traditional Windows Desktop, Windows RT is extremely limited in what you can do with the Desktop. You will not be able to install third-party Desktop applications, for instance. Windows RT will have access to Explorer, Office 2013 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Notepad, Calculator, and Paint (among a few other traditional Windows programs) but beyond that the Desktop is merely there to hold shortcuts to Office.

The barren Windows RT desktop. It’s not immediately obvious that you can’t install more Desktop apps, however. [Image credit: Anandtech]

This is likely to cause some confusion with consumers as they see Windows RT and Windows 8 computers side-by-side in the store, choose the cheaper RT models, and then are miffed at why they cannot install third-party Desktop applications (beyond the obvious ARM vs. x86 issue, MS has locked down the Desktop to not allow any third-party app installs whatsoever). This is more of a marketing issue than an OS issue, but any backlash is likely to be placed on Windows RT itself nonetheless.
In line with the above, Windows Phone 8, Windows RT, and Windows 8 will be able to tap into the same Windows Store app marketplace (for the most part), but it is tiny compared to the number of apps available on iOS and Android. In many respects, consumer tablets are app machines, so Microsoft will really have to push forward and encourage developers to support them if they want Windows RT to succeed.

The hardware

As the launch date of Windows 8 approaches, several device OEMs have shown off their Windows RT tablet offerings. The general consensus on form factor is a tablet with dockable keyboard. The keyboard docks that have been announced generally feature a full physical keyboard, trackpad, additional battery, and extra ports. PC vendors seem to prefer this Asus Transformer-like computer design, and there has yet to be any announcement on a more traditional laptop form factor running Windows RT.

So far, Asus, Acer, Dell, Lenovo, NEC, and Microsoft have announced Windows RT tablets. For around $600, you will get a 11-inch Tegra 3 tablet, with keyboard dock, up to 64GB of solid state storage, 2GB of low voltage DDR3, and a multitouch display with resolution of at least 1366×768 (coincidentally, that’s the minimum required to do side-by-side Metro apps). All the announced tablets stick to that formula, and generally do not stray. The Lenovo sticks out a bit in that the keyboard is not removable and the display actually rotates around to lay against the bottom of the keyboard to become a tablet. Otherwise, they are dockable tablets with similar hardware and price points.

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