Microsoft eyeing 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.
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November 23rd, 2009
umm… Win7 is good enough, and Win8 is something that people will look forward to, ….but did u say 2012!!! is not that a name of a movie … so which comes first, 2012 or Windows8… :thinking:
November 24th, 2009
The Mayans say we’ll never see it…
November 25th, 2009
Yup, I’m using XP and will switch to Windows 7 when all the bugs and security flaws are all worked out.
November 25th, 2009
Many questions.
Will they still permit stand alone installations?
How about 128 bit version?
Will it support solar power?
What fun.
November 26th, 2009
Just had my first brush with Win 7 and found it was OK. But I won’t switch away from XP because 7 won’t run some of my aps. I also couldn’t even load Office 97, which is required because it is the most compatible of all versions of Word and I have a ton of documents clients use and 97 is the only version that reliably opens. What is wrong with Microsoft that they cannot have two systems–XP for Business (or at least fully compatible with old apps) and Win?.
It is clear that Microsoft is only vaguely interested in the end user–its emphasis is on driving sales of new versions of software. Users be damned.
Thomas
December 6th, 2009
@DavidB
The Mayans never said that in fact, they reject claims of the apocalypse. NASA has also disproved it.
Windows 7 is a pile of shit for gaming, won’t even run Frets on Fire where Windows Vista will. Windows 8 better fix this.
December 7th, 2009
Come on, really?! I’m just getting used to Windows 7, and some of my friends are still running XP!
December 8th, 2009
@ Thomas L: XP mode in Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate will solve your problem – it’s a free download (actually two – one ~30 MB and the other ~500 MB) from Microsoft.