Windows 8 Will Be ‘Completely Different’, Blog Reveals

Rumours of Windows 8 development have been drifting around online even before the 22 October launch of Windows 7. In mid-October, a European health care newsletter quoted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as telling the audience at the UK press launch of Windows 7, “We’ve got Windows 8 under development now.”

When eWEEK sought to confirm that quote, a Microsoft spokesperson claimed that no transcript of Ballmer’s remarks was available, along with: “We have nothing to share about Windows 8 at this point as we are super-focused on delivering Windows 7 and sharing the value it offers to our customers.”

Around that time, the rumour-mill surrounding Windows 8 also kicked even higher gear over the LinkedIn page for one Robert Morgan, a senior member of Microsoft’s Research & Development team, who listed his current projects as “128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan.”

Microsoft refused to confirm or deny whether Robert Morgan actually existed, offering eWEEK a “no comment” reply on 24 November. That opened the door to the possibility that the LinkedIn page had been faked.

The increased prevalence of the cloud, and the rise of browser-based operating systems such as Google’s Chrome OS, has the potential to affect the development of Windows 8. How Microsoft intends to integrate the cloud into future versions of its flagship product remains to be seen, but leaked PowerPoint slides purportedly shown by Microsoft during the last Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles suggest that Windows 8 could be released in 2012.