Windows 9 Beta in January 2014, RTM launch in November, reportedly

Last Updated on Sunday, 17 March 2013 10:11 Written by admin Sunday, 17 March 2013 03:28

Microsoft is building Windows 9 in addition to Windows Blue, and apparently the Redmond company is looking to accelerate the release cycle of its main cash cow. While Windows Blue is slated for release by in the summer of 2013, supposedly a refresh to Windows 8, the next major version of Windows is also in the works. According to Win8China, Windows 9 is planned for release just 2 years after the general availability of Windows 8. Windows 8 in its turn, was launched 3 years after Windows 7, which dropped 3 years after Windows Vista was finalized and offered to consumers.

A November 2014 GA deadline for Windows 9 means that Microsoft put pedal to the metal as far as Windows development is concerned, shortening the release cycle by a third. Of course, this information needs to be taken with a grain of salt, to say the least. General availability in November 2014 automatically implies that Windows 9 will go gold (will be released to manufacturing) sometime in late summer 2014, or early fall. Sources familiar with the Windows 9 development effort indicate that a Beta of Windows 9 might find its way to testers in less than a year, namely in January 2014.

Windows takes top 4 positions in OS usage ranking, but don’t expect any real reshuffling until after Windows 9 launches

Last Updated on Sunday, 3 March 2013 06:35 Written by admin Sunday, 3 March 2013 06:35

Iterations of the Windows operating system have taken the first four positions in an OS usage ranking put together by Net Marketshare. As of the end of February 2013, Windows 8 joins its predecessors by surpassing all versions of Mac OS X and Linux in terms of usage share. Climbing to 2.67% of the market, Windows 8 is right on track to dethrone Windows Vista and become the third most used operating system version in the world. My personal prediction is that Windows 8 and Vista will swap places by the summer of 2013, by which time Microsoft is rumored to release the first major update to Windows 7’s successor, thus far codenamed Windows Blue.

Windows 7 continues to be no. 1 with a usage share of 44.55%, growing from 44.45% the previous month, which means that consumers worldwide are still buying new copies of the OS as well as new machines powered by this iteration of Windows, despite the availability of Windows 8. Windows XP’s usage share continues to drop, especially as users are upgrading either to Windows 7 or Windows 8. XP is now down to 38.99% of the market, while Vista, the OS that so many love to hate, is just at 5.17% as of the start of March.

Considering the gap separating XP and Windows 8, I really don’t see any chances for the latter to displace the old time favorite version of Windows, even if now more than a decade old, and closing in on its retirement date. Microsoft will cut support for Windows XP in just a few years, but by that time, I estimate that Windows 9 and not Windows 8 will take advantage of the hole which the death of XP will leave in the market. Mark my words, Windows 8 will never be more than third best, usage share-wise. You heard it here first.

Windows 9 Planning

Last Updated on Sunday, 5 August 2012 12:25 Written by admin Sunday, 5 August 2012 12:25

Whenever one Windows is finalized, another… Well, you get the idea. Just a quick reminder, Windows 8 was released to manufacturing on June 25th, 2012, although Microsoft only made the official announcement on August 1st. And with the Windows 8 development process coming to an end, the Windows team is in a sweet transition spot to the next release of the platform.

Don’t bother trying to get an idea of where Windows is heading from an official Microsoft representative. Since Windows 8 is yet to reach general availability, it will be easier to find the Higgs Boson using nothing but a treasure map than getting answers to what’s coming after Windows 8. Most probably, you won’t even get a stupid and pointless confirmation that Windows 9 is well, Windows 9, until Steven Sinofsky will come out with an wow-nobody-saw-it-coming official announcement.

But don’t believe even for a minute that Microsoft is in any way clueless about the future of Windows. In fact, the period that stretches from ahead of the finalization of a Windows release and months after its GA is dedicated to planning.

Microsoft has been hard at work not only wrapping up Windows 8, but also planning for Windows 9. Planning is a really abstract term, and it doesn’t necessarily exclude some coding work. But it will be a mistake to think that the Windows team is just now, that Windows 8 reached RTM, starting to look forward to the future.

I’m ready to bet that they already have a pretty good idea of what the Windows 9 project will be focused on. Do I hear the end of the 32-bit version of the operating system? Maybe, just maybe. 128-bit you ask? Not really. Think multi-core. Multi-multi-core. If you were already thinking it, then pat yourselves on the back. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Those of you already neck deep in parallel programming documentation need not stop, as self-congratulatory pats are optional.

Speaking of parallel programming. There’s going to be a Windows 9 SDK. No big surprise there, I’m guessing. But since Sinofsky can confirm that Windows 8 is Windows 8, I’m guessing that I can also make captain-obvious type announcements, just to get the bragging rights that I was the first one to do it.

And remember I was talking about Windows 9 planning at the beginning of this article. Well, there’s one guy at Microsoft that has been focusing on releasing the Windows 8 SDK. What do you think he’s doing right now?

Not much, just planning for the transition to Windows 9.

“Driving the release of the Windows 8 SDK within the Visual C++ team.

Working ~2 Month contract preparing all components within the SDK for its upcoming release.

Documenting all steps necessary to hand off ownership of the SDK to the Windows 9 release and future sustainment.”

I’m curious to hear from you guys. Where do you think that Windows 9 is heading?