Win 7 shipped on time. What makes you so sure Win 8 won't?
Win 8 has a lot more in common with Win 7 in terms of people driving it, developers involved, etc, than it does with Vista or any earlier release.
Judging by the Build preview, which is similar to the state of the Win7 PDC 2008 preview, I don't see why anyone would doubt Microsoft is on target to hit RTM near middle of next year (the same way Win7 went RTM in July 2009) and then full release in October (the same way Win7 went into general release in October 2009) to coincide with the hardware maker's fall releases.
I do agree the rest of the article is fluff, though. This statement in particular:
"What's more, even if Microsoft does manage to ship by fall 2012, the calendar still gives the Apple and Android development projects a huge lead time to out-innovate Windows 8."
Does the author think the developers at Google and Apple just wave their arms and solid innovative code magically appears in Android and OS X? It was pretty clear what Win8 was going to be even to curious outsiders as long as a full year ago. Just like it is pretty clear to anyone with half a lick of sense where Apple is taking OS X over the next few years (hint: more iOS-y).
Showing this stuff off now about a year ahead of full retail release doesn't change the game in any notable way.
Win 8 has a lot more in common with Win 7 in terms of people driving it, developers involved, etc, than it does with Vista or any earlier release.
Judging by the Build preview, which is similar to the state of the Win7 PDC 2008 preview, I don't see why anyone would doubt Microsoft is on target to hit RTM near middle of next year (the same way Win7 went RTM in July 2009) and then full release in October (the same way Win7 went into general release in October 2009) to coincide with the hardware maker's fall releases.
I do agree the rest of the article is fluff, though. This statement in particular:
"What's more, even if Microsoft does manage to ship by fall 2012, the calendar still gives the Apple and Android development projects a huge lead time to out-innovate Windows 8."
Does the author think the developers at Google and Apple just wave their arms and solid innovative code magically appears in Android and OS X? It was pretty clear what Win8 was going to be even to curious outsiders as long as a full year ago. Just like it is pretty clear to anyone with half a lick of sense where Apple is taking OS X over the next few years (hint: more iOS-y).
Showing this stuff off now about a year ahead of full retail release doesn't change the game in any notable way.