14 DAY TRIAL // Whether Microsoft will serve the fully-fledged Beta development milestone or a pre-Beta Build for the first public testing preview of Windows 8 is still pretty much anybody’s guess. The software giant pointed to the BUILD conference in mid-September 2011 for the first deep insight into the successor of Windows 8.
Since BUILD is the replacement of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC), the Redmond company is also expected to share Windows 8 bits with attendants, and subsequently to broaden the testing pool to include more users, not just devs.
But there’s still no telling what exactly is Microsoft gearing up to present/release at BUILD in terms of Windows 8. Guessing what is especially hard since the company has managed to keep a tight lid on any Windows 8 details.
Some information did manage to slip through, and reports reveled that a full Windows 8 Beta could be shared at BUILD.
The same report indicated that Windows 8 would be finalized as early as April 2012, with the first Release Candidate (RC) provided to testers sometime in early 2012, even as early as January.
According to CentrumXP, doing some simple math of how a Windows 8 Milestone 3 (M3) and pre-Beta Builds are evolving points out that the platform might not reach the full Beta ahead of September 13, when BUILD is scheduled to start in Anaheim, California.
The polish website claims that Build 8100 will be the Beta for Windows 8, and that it’s possible for a Build 808x or 809x Build to be served at BUILD. Such a BUILD release would in fact be a pre-Beta development milestone of Windows 8.
There is a precedent. At the PDC that preceded the launch of Windows 7 by approximately a year, Microsoft served a M3 release, essentially a pre-Beta Build, to the devs attending the event.
Microsoft is not offering any official details about its plans for Windows 8, whether it be just related to the BUILD conference or the development of the operating system.