Windows 8: Official Roadmaps

Well, on this day of PDC 2009, since I won’t hear anything about Windows 8, I took it upon myself to see what I could scrounge up. It looks like a bit more is being announced to partners where Windows 8 Server is concerned… well, in the context of a roadmap, at least. The information all says the same thing I’ve been reporting via other roadmaps: Windows 8 being released around a time frame of 2012. Perhaps the whole, “end-of-the-world” thing in 2012 really has something to do with Windows 8.







Although that second roadmap doesn’t have anything listed for a name, it’s once again the same old song: Windows 8 ~2012.


Short: Windows 8 is Definitely Getting the Hyper-V Treatment

Two months ago, I posted an extensive list of Windows 8 features and considerations. Amongst all of the information in that post, there was one person in particular who had listed on her resume a feature suggestion straight from the Hyper-V team that was shelved for Windows 8 inclusion. Well, I just ran across another profile on LinkedIn which contains a supporting mention of Hyper-V features going into Windows 8. To quote the profile directly:

""Working on Hyper-V features for Win8 in the Platform and Management Extendability team, which is part of the Windows Core OS Kernel Group.""

I guess at this point, I’m curious as to if these are features that are going to go into client, server, or both (most likely, only server). All the roadmaps I’ve seen so far with Windows 8 getting a mention have all been related to Server, so… as always, this is all speculation for the time being. We all know just how much plans change internally.


Forrester Research says: 1% of 653 Businesses Surveyed will Wait for Windows 8

If you’re not familiar with these types of things, there are companies out there who perform extensive research into just about anything you could think of. In the technology world, Gartner and Forrester are two of the most formidable players. Companies hire them to research and create statistical data to serve an array of purposes.


In a report dated October 2009, Forrester surveyed 653, “ PC decision-makers at North American and European enterprises and SMBs about their Windows 7 deployment plans.” When similar research was performed prior to Vista, the majority of businesses surveyed were already singing the praises of a non-existent Windows 7, since anything had to be better than Windows Vista. Interestingly enough, this new research for Windows 7 shows that only 1% of the companies surveyed are planning to wait for Windows 8. Check out the following excerpt from the report:



The report is a solid look at just how well-received Windows 7 is, most likely by many of the same companies who wanted absolutely nothing to do with Vista. Feel free to download and check out the report – as well as others – from Symantec.

Thanx you Stephen Chapman (MicrosoftKitchen) for the info.