14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft continues to keep Windows 8 details under a tight lid, and certainly, so far even managed to not have the actual bits of the operating system leaked in the wild.
Some information did find its way out of Redmond, and users got a very frugal taste of what the next major iteration of the Windows client will bring to the table.
At the end of January 2011, the first screenshots from an early development milestone of Windows 8 were leaked.
The images are depicting two steps in the installation process of Windows vNext, courtesy of Zukona.
There isn’t anything tangible about the successor of Windows 7 revealed in the screenshots, with the exception of an unofficial confirmation that work is moving ahead on Windows 8, and that the software giant is broadening the tester pool, providing the bits to more early adopters.
According to a new screenshot from Zuko (via Neowin), Windows 8 reached Build 6.2.7926.0.winmain_win8m2.110211-1159 last week.
The Build String reveals that this particular interim Build of Windows 8 was compiled on February 11th, 2011.
Sources close to the Redmond company reveal that Windows 8 is expected to hit Milestone 3 sometime in March 2011.
In this regard, Windows vNext planning indicates that the same overall development milestones as for Windows 7 will be used.
Namely, early adopters should be receiving the first Beta Build in the second half of 2011, certainly after M3 is released and tested thoroughly.
Windows 8 Beta is bound to be the first public testing milestone of the next generation of Windows, but of course, all information comes from third-parties, with Microsoft having not offered official confirmation of a timetable for the OS.
The software giant did demo an early Build of Windows 8 at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2011), focusing on support for system-on-a-chip architectures, including ARM systems.
Windows 8 is expected to be finalized by the end of 2012, and released no later than early 2013.
