14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 (also Windows vNext) will be made available to customers in 2012, with Microsoft offering official confirmation of this deadline. Albeit inadvertently, the confirmation from the Redmond company gives customers the first tangible date for the next iteration of Windows, along with a reiteration of the fact that the successor of Windows 7 is in fact Windows 8, at least for the time being.
With Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division at the helm of the Windows development efforts, the software giant has been extremely quite when it comes down to Windows 8, much in the same manner as it was the case for its predecessor.
However, Microsoft Netherlands did not seem to have the same issue, and revealed in a recent post uncovered by Winrumors that Windows 8 is not only under development, but that the operating system will be completed and released within the next two years.
Here’s the translation from Google: “Furthermore, Microsoft is of course the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years before "Windows 8 'on the market.” And here it is from Bing Translator: “In addition, Microsoft, of course, the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years before "8" at the market.” But the fact of the matter is that with 2010 almost over, the wait for Windows 8 is bound not be a full couple of years long.
One thing is clear. Microsoft is pushing hard to wrap up and get Windows 8 out the door within three years after Windows 7.
Users need to keep in mind that Windows 7 was released to manufacturing in mid-2009 with the General Availability set for October 2009.
This could mean that the Redmond company might also be targeting mid-2012 for the RTM of Windows 8.
And judging from the development process of Windows 7, the first pre-Beta milestones of Windows 8 will be offered to testers and partners close to the software giant as early as 2011.
There are also rumors of a Windows 8 Beta release in 2011, but these need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Recently, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer noted that Windows 8 is the company’s riskiest product yet.
With the software giant’s CEO hinting that Windows 8 will be revolutionary rather than evolutionary, the wait is on for new features and capabilities, such as a Windows App Store for logoed software, booster performance, faster start-up and shutdown, a componentized version tailored to slates and netbooks, etc.