For those of us that have actively used Windows Developer Preview, we’ve come to find some features of Windows 8 (such as speed of startup) refreshing and worth messing around with the pre-BETA. Other features like Metro aren’t bad but certainly could use some improvement.
Luckily, Microsoft has told us numerous times that they have heard our complaints and that the Beta will introduce many of the fixes we’ve been waiting for to make the experience as good on laptops and desktops as it is on a tablet.
At this site, and many other places, we’ve speculated closely that the much anticipated Beta would arrive in January, around the time of the CES. Now reports are coming in that supposedly it will be shown off at CES but the BETA won’t reach consumers until late February.
As far as the final launch date? It is still expected in 2012, but likely not until late fall. This basically means that a projected RTM version would arrive around June.
This might seem a little optimistic with the BETA arriving so late, but we can at least hope.
Exact feature changes in the Beta have yet to be confirmed and it seems that Microsoft has still yet to nail down the exact features, according to sources.
While the end of February is a LOT longer than I personally hoped to have to wait, I suppose if it means a better experience and shows us something that looks a lot closer to the final experience, it will be worth the wait.
Windows 8 is destined to make some big changes in the market with its support of ARM and its introduction of the Metro interface.
With the new changes, it is understandable that Microsoft doesn’t want to rush this product to the consumers.
If Windows 8 doesn’t set out to deliver the experience that Microsoft is touting it can (a great OS for conventional and unconventional computing devices) it could seriously hurt Redmond’s chances of staying competitive the in vastly growing mobile sector of the market.
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