Windows 8 Release Candidate...I mean Release Preview Comes Early
posted Sunday Jun 3, 2012 by Jon Wurm
Not quite so unexpectedly, thanks to a pulled Microsoft blog post on May 30th (published again on May 31st), we found out that Christmas was coming early... sort of. Windows 8 probably won't be hitting PCs until holiday season 2012 but Microsoft was a few days ahead of the of the scheduled June 2nd release. Steven Sinofsky the head of Windows, didn't promise anything in a recent blog post but at least it feels like things are on track.
If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 8 and Windows RT match our expectations, then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about 2 months. If we are successful in that, then we are tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 8 and Windows RT available for the holidays.
While not a lot of changes were made, they have managed to clean Windows 8 up a bit. The UI seems to have a better feel, the transition between the desktop and metro is smoother and major performance gains over Windows 7 are nothing to laugh at. The Windows App Store also has a bit more content now to rummage though.
We also learned that Microsoft will offer a Windows 8 upgrade plan. Starting now, if you purchase a Windows 7 PC, you will have the ability to upgrade to Windows 8 for only $15. Not quite the free XP to Vista or Vista to Windows 7 deal, but a lot better than paying the full $200 to upgrade later.
Other than that, we'll just sit tight a little longer and keep taking our Prozac until some powerhouse Windows tablets hit the market. In the meantime, get the latest version of the Release Preview here.