Windows 8 set for October launch: report
Earlier this year,聽Microsoft聽launched a consumer preview of聽Windows 8, the latest iteration of its popular operating system, and the first to be designed for cross-platform use. Now, according to Bloomberg News 鈥� which cites "people with knowledge of the schedule" 鈥� we have a (possible) release date: October of 2012. Is the timing propitious? It is.听
"The timing," Dina Bass of Bloomberg, "would let Microsoft target Christmas shoppers with the new software, which works with touch-screen devices as well as laptops and desktop PCs."
Unlike past versions of Windows, Windows 8 has a tiled interface called Metro, which allows users to access and control the OS via a flick of the finger. (Old-schoolers shouldn't fret: Windows 8 will still work just fine with a mouse.) And early reviews of the OS have been largely positive.听
"It looks like Windows 8 is certainly going to take some getting used to," the team at PC Advisor. "But underneath that daunting new interface are a wealth of smart decisions that go a long way towards dragging the behemoth that is Windows into the future."聽
In related news, Microsoft has 诲辞濒别诲听辞耻迟 a kind of beta version of Office 15, a new software suite that should launch in conjunction with Windows 8.听Paul Thurrott, who runs Supersite For Windows, a popular tech site, got his hands on Office 15, and he reports that the suite sits聽"visually, between the new Metro style and the traditional desktop." More on that here.听
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