We want to take a quick moment to talk (yet again) about Windows 8; specifically the new Tablets and something called Windows RT.

As you know, we are not big fans of Windows 8. At least, not yet. But there’s a lot of pent up interest in Tablets so here is where we’re at.

First of all let’s talk about ‘RT’. The first Windows Tablet out of the gate is the Microsoft Surface which runs Windows RT. Our quick recommendation: if you see ‘RT’ anywhere on the tin, walk away. In an amazing act of obfuscation: ‘RT’ is actually a completely different operating system from ‘Windows 8.’ So from now on, we will refer to ‘Windows 8 RT’ as simply ‘RT’ and every other flavour of Windows as ‘Windows 8’.

Although the opening screen looks the same, no Windows desktop apps will run on ‘RT’. Ever. Microsoft is promising new apps which may look like Office, but they are, from the ground up, different. To our knowledge, no, and I mean zero, software vendors of any size will be porting applications to RT; it’s just too hard. And similar to the Apple Store, any new RT apps will be installed exclusively from Microsoft Store. RT is also the basis of the software that runs on Windows 8 phones. Again, it is not, and will never be, compatible with applications written for Windows 8. This means that sharing data or apps between your Windows RT device (tablet or phone) will not be as ‘transparent’ as you might expect. Our current guess is that ‘syncing’ between RT devices will be ‘mitigated’ through Windows Live—similar to the way Apple sync data/apps through iCloud or iTunes. Yuk.

The good news (although even more confusing) is that, in January, we will start to see Tablets that do run Windows 8; including Windows 7 applications like Simple Accounting. In other words, these tablets will be what most of us initially expected a Windows 8 tablet to be: a tablet that gives one the best of both worlds.

That said, this is not a panacea. As we’ve discussed, a desktop application running on a tablet is not the greatest experience in the world. You should view this scenario as a bridge towards apps that are truly tablet-centric (as our upcoming revision of WebSAFE will be.) But for most of us, that bridge will take at least a year or more to cross, so it’s important to have a device that provides the flexibility to choose.

So our one sentence recommendations:

1. Skip RT-based devices.
2. Wait for Windows 8 Tablets in January.
3. When you’re in the store, triple-check that the tablet you’re buying does not say ‘RT’.
4. Look for apps that are optimized for the tablet, but which also have versions optimized for the desktop and which allow easy sharing between them.