Microsoft Windows 8 Release Date – It’s 3D , Mobile and Secure
Windows 8 myths debunked – and the operating system you’ll really get.
Windows 8. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has described it as the riskiest product bet the company is currently making, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Microsoft, a company used to calling the technology tune, has been left marching behind the band. While Ballmer’s firm circled its wagons and recovered from the Vista debacle, Google and Apple have moved to dominate mobile. Against this backdrop, Microsoft has to deliver something impressive, persuasive and innovative. In fact, it needs to do this on two fronts. It needs to produce an OS that can enable PC makers to challenge the iPad, and it needs to persuade Windows 7 users – people rightly happy with their current operating system -that they need to upgrade. It’s a tough challenge, and as you read on we’ll discover how Microsoft plans to return to dominance. With access to the company’s top brass, leaked documents and other top sources, we’ve gone far beyond the internet rumors. We’ve put together the definitive guide to what Windows 8 will really do, how it will work and what it will look like. Remember, you heard it here first.
Release Date
Despite a number of leaked roadmaps, the only official comment about the launch date comes from Windows president Steven Sinofsky: “Somewhere between 24 and 36 months between releases is what we aim for.” Counting from the 2009 release of Windows 7, that means sometime between 2011 and 2012. A slide deck leaked from last year s Windows Ecosystem Forum (which no-one from Microsoft will go on the record to confirm as authentic) says the OS will be available “for the holiday”, and 2012 looks most likely. The leaked slides talk about the average memory, wireless broadband and internet TV usage predicted for 2012.
Other company roadmaps claim that the milestone one build was finished in August 2010, the milestone two build was completed at the end of February, and that milestone three is now underway. Another five months takes it neatly to September. Microsoft usually holds its annual Professional Developers Conference around then, and at previous gatherings it has been known to introduce upcoming versions of Windows. We’d put money on the following:
a beta in the spring 2012, RTM in the summer and the completed product on sale in autumn 2012.
Even the Windows 8 name isn’t certain (although we’ll keep using it for convenience); Ballmer referred to “the next release of Windows”, and at CES this year, Sinofsky made a point of commenting: “I didn’t say Windows 8; I said the next generation of Windows”. He also pointed out that he wasn’t talking about a new user interface, programming model, packaging, price or anything else, but there have been rumours about these -some believable, some less so.
There are lots of trends to take into account for Windows 8. Ubiquitous connectivity, location services, social networks, the cloud, natural user interfaces like Kinect, more screens, ever-increasing storage and changes in computing power, including processors that take less power as well as ones that do more computation, plus the rise of the GPU for computing.
One thing is certain and it’s summed up nicely by a line from that leaked slide deck. “Reality: there are currently more ideas than there is time to implement them.”
Windows 8 myths debunked – and the operating system you’ll really get.
Windows 8. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has described it as the riskiest product bet the company is currently making, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Microsoft, a company used to calling the technology tune, has been left marching behind the band. While Ballmer’s firm circled its wagons and recovered from the Vista debacle, Google and Apple have moved to dominate mobile. Against this backdrop, Microsoft has to deliver something impressive, persuasive and innovative. In fact, it needs to do this on two fronts. It needs to produce an OS that can enable PC makers to challenge the iPad, and it needs to persuade Windows 7 users – people rightly happy with their current operating system -that they need to upgrade. It’s a tough challenge, and as you read on we’ll discover how Microsoft plans to return to dominance. With access to the company’s top brass, leaked documents and other top sources, we’ve gone far beyond the internet rumors. We’ve put together the definitive guide to what Windows 8 will really do, how it will work and what it will look like. Remember, you heard it here first.
Release Date
Despite a number of leaked roadmaps, the only official comment about the launch date comes from Windows president Steven Sinofsky: “Somewhere between 24 and 36 months between releases is what we aim for.” Counting from the 2009 release of Windows 7, that means sometime between 2011 and 2012. A slide deck leaked from last year s Windows Ecosystem Forum (which no-one from Microsoft will go on the record to confirm as authentic) says the OS will be available “for the holiday”, and 2012 looks most likely. The leaked slides talk about the average memory, wireless broadband and internet TV usage predicted for 2012.
Other company roadmaps claim that the milestone one build was finished in August 2010, the milestone two build was completed at the end of February, and that milestone three is now underway. Another five months takes it neatly to September. Microsoft usually holds its annual Professional Developers Conference around then, and at previous gatherings it has been known to introduce upcoming versions of Windows. We’d put money on the following:
a beta in the spring 2012, RTM in the summer and the completed product on sale in autumn 2012.
Even the Windows 8 name isn’t certain (although we’ll keep using it for convenience); Ballmer referred to “the next release of Windows”, and at CES this year, Sinofsky made a point of commenting: “I didn’t say Windows 8; I said the next generation of Windows”. He also pointed out that he wasn’t talking about a new user interface, programming model, packaging, price or anything else, but there have been rumours about these -some believable, some less so.
There are lots of trends to take into account for Windows 8. Ubiquitous connectivity, location services, social networks, the cloud, natural user interfaces like Kinect, more screens, ever-increasing storage and changes in computing power, including processors that take less power as well as ones that do more computation, plus the rise of the GPU for computing.
One thing is certain and it’s summed up nicely by a line from that leaked slide deck. “Reality: there are currently more ideas than there is time to implement them.”
