Windows 8 in 2012??
Have you all got Windows 7 now? It’s unlikely I know, in fact the chances are that most people reading this article are still using Windows XP as their operating system. The reason I ask about Windows 7 though is because Windows 8 is only three short years away, and that’s straight from the mouths (or rather slides) of Microsoft.
Windows 7 has only been on general release for a month and yet many people are already eyeing up future iterations of the Windows operating system, including Microsoft itself.
In April it emerged via job postings that work was already beginning on Windows 8. Essentially, as soon as Windows 7 moved from the drawing board to the real world, Windows 8 plans started to be drawn up. At the time, a three-year development plan and a 2012 release was mentioned, and that now looks to have been proven correct.
According to Microsoft Kitchen, the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles last week saw Windows 8 mentioned in a slide detailing the future roadmap for Windows. It was mentioned by name and with a firm but flexible 2012 release date.
2012 would hardly be a revelatory release timetable as Windows 7 came three years after Vista and Microsoft seems to have set fast on that sort of period between major releases. However, it’s surely flexible and could change if Windows 7 took off in a big way (a bigger way than Steve Ballmer is already claiming) or even be brought forward were the latest OS to fall flat on its face.
So what would Microsoft want to do with Windows 8? That again depends on how popular Windows 7 proves to be. If it manages to kill XP off then expect only slight and probably under-the-surface changes; if not then some more wild and risky choices could be made. Whatever happens it looks as though it could be built on 128-bit architecture.
Windows 7 has only been on general release for a month and yet many people are already eyeing up future iterations of the Windows operating system, including Microsoft itself.
In April it emerged via job postings that work was already beginning on Windows 8. Essentially, as soon as Windows 7 moved from the drawing board to the real world, Windows 8 plans started to be drawn up. At the time, a three-year development plan and a 2012 release was mentioned, and that now looks to have been proven correct.
According to Microsoft Kitchen, the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles last week saw Windows 8 mentioned in a slide detailing the future roadmap for Windows. It was mentioned by name and with a firm but flexible 2012 release date.
2012 would hardly be a revelatory release timetable as Windows 7 came three years after Vista and Microsoft seems to have set fast on that sort of period between major releases. However, it’s surely flexible and could change if Windows 7 took off in a big way (a bigger way than Steve Ballmer is already claiming) or even be brought forward were the latest OS to fall flat on its face.
So what would Microsoft want to do with Windows 8? That again depends on how popular Windows 7 proves to be. If it manages to kill XP off then expect only slight and probably under-the-surface changes; if not then some more wild and risky choices could be made. Whatever happens it looks as though it could be built on 128-bit architecture.
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