Will Windows 8 Be Ready For Release In 2012?

MrSeb writes with an excerpt from an Extreme Tech article on the Windows 8 release timeline: "...A Microsoft vice president announced that the Windows 8 beta would begin in late February 2012. The beta will be feature-complete and will allow developers to begin listing their apps in the Store. The timing of the beta is curious, and ultimately quite telling. ... The first public build of Windows 8 ... emerged in mid-September 2011; by the time the beta rolls around, it will have been ruminating for more than five months. If we follow the timeline forward — it took 10 months for Windows 7 to go from beta to public release — then it's possible that Windows 8 might arrive just in time for Black Friday 2012, or perhaps not in 2012 at all. Will its late arrival affect its chances of cutting out a swath of the tablet market from Apple and Android? Or will Windows 8 be different enough that it will do well, no matter when it arrives?" In related news, an anonymous reader notes that IDC predicts Windows 8 will be irrelevant to the traditional PC market.

Comments

Win8 is a non-event

[vinn]

Three things:

1. Everyone knows that every other release of Windows is good (Win 3.1, 98, XP, 7) and every other one sucks (Win 3.0, 95, ME, Vista.) No enterprise is going to jump on this release.
2. Enterprises are in various states of completing their transition to Win 7. Very few enterprises are going to begin another rip and replace cycle next year, so no one is going to jump on this release.
3. Everything in the press has stated how Microsoft has taken a different direction for this user interface (but lately admitting the old one is still there.) No enterprise is going to jump on this release.

With regards to tablets and phones.. I really don't care what OS mine runs other than I want to to work exactly the way I want it to work. I doubt Win8 will.

Re:Windows 8

[gcnaddict]

Like SpryGuy said, you aren't getting it.

In Windows, the desktop is actually an app in and of itself. When explorer.exe is first run, it loads the desktop (all icons that go on it) and the taskbar. If you never run Explorer, you'll never get the desktop. It's the same thing here; a person doesn't actually have to run Explorer, and if they don't, then the desktop will never load. The first UI the user will see will be the Metro UI, not Explorer.

Now, the second a person runs a traditional windowed application, the desktop will load as well for UI consistency, and all applications (graphically) will be contained within that layer. However, not every windowed application has to be paired with the desktop. If you run the task manager, for instance, it will float above everything else even if you switch back to the Metro UI or use a Metro application.

Re:Not in 2012 for me

[Spad]

Even better, the GUIs for things like Exchange 2010 allow you to view the CLI commands being used for any of the changes you make, so that you can easily script them, rather than having to try and work out which particular command and property name that checkbox needs.