Dutch Microsoft managers have talked about the Windows 8 roadmap. They also mentioned details about the release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
Microsoft’s Dutch corporate blog published the approximate roadmap for the release date of the new Windows 8 operating system. Entitled “Windows 7’s First Birthday,” it said: “Furthermore, Microsoft is certainly working on the next version of Windows. However, it will take some two more years until Windows 8 is ready for release.”
After the Winrumors.com blog mentioned this detail and Cnet published a screenshot of the corresponding page section, the Dutch Microsoft managers changed the blog post. Now the post tells that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is currently in testing and will get released in the first six months of 2011. A first Windows 7 update are Windows Live Essentials.
Officially, Microsoft has not told anything regarding the release date for the new desktop OS. However, Microsoft’s Windows Server team had announced an important release for 2012, back in November 2009. In June 2010, an MS confidential presentation for Microsoft partners, talking about Windows 8, had appeared on the Web. The server version of a new operating system usually ships after the corresponding desktop edition.
Last week, Steve Ballmer had talked about the successor for Windows 7 on a Gartner symposium. He said the next Windows version were the riskiest new software product by Microsoft.