Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Windows 8 ‘Confirmed’ for 2012 Launch

More and more evidence is emerging that Windows 8 will be released in 2012. At this years Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC 2009), budding attendees managed to get their hands on two Windows roadmap slides that show ‘Windows 8′ launching in 2012:

windows8roadmap1

windows8roadmap2

Now these slides don’t really provide any information that we didn’t know; Microsoft typically leave 3 years between each release and with Windows 7 launching this year, Windows 8 was always likely to be in 2012. It is unlikely that Microsoft would pull Windows 8’s launch forward to 2011 because it would impact Windows 7 sales with customers delaying upgrades, and unlikely they would delay until 2013 as Windows 8’s development seems to be progressing quite nicely.

Source: Microsoft Kitchen

(Unofficial) Windows 8 Wallpapers

Here’s been no sign of any official news or Windows 8 media, but that hasn’t stopped talented designers pulling together their own. Rajesh Patel has created six Windows 8 Wallpapers that are available for download:


Windows 8 to be 128-bit compatible?

As we’ve known for some time, Microsoft had already begun work on Windows 8 before Windows 7 was completed. The reason being that different teams work on different aspects of the operating system, which is why Microsoft was able to do this. Microsoft previously shed some light on what we can see in Windows 8 through a job description.
http://windows8center.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/windows81-300x225.png
It appears though, that one specific Microsoft employee was not too careful with their LinkedIn profile, and had accidentally leaked some interesting details regarding Windows 8. According to his LinkedIn profile, which seems to have had many of its details removed, Robert Murdon has been working at Microsoft since January 2002. Windows 8 News managed to catch this on the Microsoft employee’s LinkedIn profile before it disappeared:

“Robert Morgan is working to get IA-128 working backwards with full binary compatibility on the existing IA-64 instructions in the hardware simulation to work for Windows 8 and definitely Windows 9.”

“Robert Morgan is using Hestia (custom software package) for experimenting with the processor for scientific analysis and 3D graphics. Error: Memory Latency? Always gotta be a challenge barrier, it’s gotta be a bug in Hestia. right?!”

“Robert Morgan is frustrated with process standards and regulations! Delays Delays!”

Murdon seems certain that we will see 128-bit compatibility with Windows 9, while it appears that whether we will see it in Windows 8 or not is still uncertain. Coincidentally, many do believe that Windows 7 will be Microsoft’s last 32-bit OS. So could this mean we will see Windows 8 come in 64-bit and 128-bit flavors? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Windows 8 Professional Edition Transformation Pack

Windows 8 is still in planning stages,though unofficial transformation packs has been released.

Here are the screenshots of the transformation pack-

Windows 8 transformation 1


Windows 8 transformation 2

Download Windows 8 transformation pack here