Steven Sinofsky posted that Windows 8 will be available for download tonight at 8pm (PST) or 4am Dublin/London time. This will be for x86 and x64. The ARM release won’t be for some time. Be aware that a lot of people are going to want to download this developer preview; the download site is going to get hammered.
A few points about this release:
- It is a developer preview. It is pre-beta. This is the first general public test build and there will be bugs. In fact, they want you to find and report those bugs. This build should not be used in production. Some of us geeks will use it on our primary PCs … but we should acknowledge that there will inevitably be issues. That’s the nature of this type of release. I wouldn’t criticise it. This is the same process we had with Windows 7 and that worked out very well.
- This is a very different OS. Read my earlier posts where I talked through a lot of stuff. I also recommend a post that Paul Thurrott just blogged. It’s a glossary of terminology and changes.
As an IT pro, I think it’s important to start learning a new OS as soon as possible. The final product will be different; some features may be added or even withdrawn. But the sooner you start to learn, the easier any future implementation or migration will be. And to be honest, the more bugs we log, the better the product will be. Sinofsky did say today that the focus for Windows 8 was on quality, not on schedule. The last time I heard that was Windows Server 2003. I personally believe that was a great release. Here’s hoping!