Here comes Windows 8. On Feb. 29, Microsoft will offer a “consumer preview” of its next operating system, centered on an invitation-only event in Barcelona, Spain.
The two-hour special event, for which e-mail invitations have been sent out, will occur during the same week and in the same city as the Mobile World Congress.
Windows ‘Reimagined’
Some observers have noted that a conference for mobile devices is an unusual venue to stage this major release of Microsoft’s new platform for desktops, laptops and tablets, but the company has apparently decided to use this context as a way of emphasizing the mobile orientation of Windows 8.
In fact, mobile appears to be driving key elements of 8, such as its touch- and tablet-optimized Metro interface mode. Additionally, recent information has indicated that Windows 8 will share a number of the same components as Microsoft’s next phone platform, Windows Phone 8, code-named Apollo.
The user interfaces for Windows 8 and Apollo are expected to be similar, as least in the Metro mode, and Phone 8 is expected to reuse the kernel, network stacks, security and multimedia coding of Windows 8. As a result, applications developed for Windows 8 could potentially run, with relatively little modification, on Apollo phones.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that a public beta of the “reimagined” Windows OS would be available sometime in February. The version released on the 29th will be the first widely available preliminary version.
‘Consumer Preview,’ not Beta
It is apparently being called a “consumer preview” rather than a beta because of an overuse of the term by various companies — including Microsoft — and to convey that this version is intended for consumers as an early incarnation, not as a test version.
Some information on Windows 8 has already…
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