Windows 8 to be released in late 2012

Microsoft has always tried to keep their product release dates top secret. But driven by extreme curiosity, some tech guys have somehow figured out the release date of Windows 8, the next mega release from Microsoft. With Windows 7 Service Pack 2 release yet to be announced, experts have difference of opinion about the exact release date. After the huge success of Windows 7 (selling more than 450 million copies worldwide and overtaking XP sales in US) it would be fair to expect the release of Service Pack 2 within the next six to eight months.

Microsoft normally follows a specific pattern for their product releases, rolling out new versions every two to three years and service packs every eighteen to twenty months. The inside news from Microsoft is that Windows 8 will be released somewhere in the last quarter of 2012. Windows 7 Service Pack 2 is expected to be released four to six months prior to the release of Windows 8. Now comes the big question, what can we expect from Windows 8? 

Windows 8 Developer Preview

 

The system requirements for Windows 8 will be more or less the same as that of Windows 7. It is quite obvious that Windows 8 will be faster and also consume lesser power. News is that, the boot time will be reduced considerably, as low as eight seconds and that is pretty cool for an Operating System.

One major difference from the other versions of Windows is that, it will be a hybrid Operating System. Windows 8 will be a tablet operating system and a desktop operating system at the same time or you can say that, it is an attempt on the part of Microsoft to keep up with the pace of the ever expanding tablet pc market. But there is nothing to worry for desktop users, as it comes with two separate desktop views for tablet users and desktop users. It comes with a touch screen UI along with conventional mouse and keyboard input. So the transition from traditional keyboard and mouse to touch screen will be easier. Windows 8 is supported by ARM processor widely used in smartphones and tablets.Windows 8 will have a variety of cloud applications on board and you can have cloud versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc. The desktop icons will be replaced by tiles, which will provide a good preview of the apps.


It seems that Apple is setting the standards and Microsoft is following it. The reason I am saying this is that, Windows 8 is going to have an app store, much like Apple. In the app store you can find compatible softwares for Windows 8 other than searching individual sites for each and every software. In addition to that, Windows 8 will be having a data back up program similar to Apple’s ‘Time Machine’.

You may also read: Windows 8 ARM support: A blow for Intel 
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