I saw a documentary about Roswell, the place in New Mexico, USA that was supposed to be the place where an alien space craft went down. It supposedly was recovered by the US Air Force and had alien bodies among the wreckage. 60 years later, I smile when I hear how some people regardless of evidence or lack there of continue to believe wild stories about that event. The rumors persist…right?

Well, there are rumors about Windows8. Think of it. First of all, can MicroSoft really pull off selling a new operating system to have consumers buy this close to Windows 7, especially with the critical and commercial success of Windows7? If it had bombed, sure the public would be clamoring for a new one. But that is not the case.

Second, what can you expect from Windows8? To want people to buy the OS, it has to be radically different, otherwise, it will be considered a service pack to Windows7. The 128 bit rumor is around, but to make it really work as a 128 bit OS, then there have to be major rewrites of a lot of supporting software and hardware; otherwise, what’s the point? If the applications can not take advantage of the CPU to perform faster, it will be for nought.

Third, hardware technology must already be available to be incorporated into the next OS otherwise the time frame would be longer, maybe 2012, or even 2013. The technology may already have existed when Windows7 was being built, but was put off to wait for other hardware makers to design hardware around.

Fourth, the Windows8 kernel must be redesigned. If it’s just an extension of the Vista/Windows7 kernel, again what’s the point? Microsoft and their R&D team must be looking at what the next generation must be like, but with the emphasis on new technology.

So having said that about rumors, when will Microsoft release Windows8? From a spreadsheet designed by a Microsoft employee, the timeline is around July 1, 2011. That is a mere 17 months away. Here is a copy of the spreadsheet with the timeline not just for Windows8, but for other MicroSoft products.

Estimated Product Support Life Cycles

So here is the latest rumor. The spreadsheet picks the date of July, 2011 as the release date.  What makes this spreadsheet is the supposed origin: a Microsoft employee; furthermore, it has been accurate in the past for the software timeline. Take it with a grain of salt; but the rumors may be true.

Source: TechSpot

Roadmap Spreadsheet can be downloaded here.

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Last month a number of sites, including this one, picked up on rumours that Windows 8 would support 128 bit processors.  The main ‘source’ of the windows 8 128 bit rumours was a Robert Morgan who was a “senior member of Microsoft’s R&D team” who leaked information about Windows 8′s 128 bit capabilities on his LinkedIn profile.

However, it looks now like the information was fake and that Robert Morgan never actually existed:

• The LinkedIn page has since been removed (cached version)
• When questioned about Robert Morgan, Microsoft have replied that “Microsoft has no comment regarding Robert Morgan”

i.e. Microsoft have made no attempt to quash or confirm any leaks that have been made, maintaining the official radio silence around Windows 8.  As George has stated on our sister site, the official position from Microsoft is that Windows 8 is under development and that’s all they are prepared to say for now.

That’s not to say that Windows 8 won’t support 128bit processors, but it looks like this particular leak was probably started by sites looking to benefit from the traffic.  It was a nice story, but unfortunately it looks like we are still waiting for the first set of concrete information concerning Windows 8.

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Speculation about Windows8 is largely built from short interviews from Microsoft employees. There have been interviews with Robert Morgan and Anders Vindberg of Microsoft. They say little but give some hints about what is to come.

Will Windows 8 be released in 2012 or 2011? Will it be 128 bit, or 64 bit? Will it be the end of the 32 bit OS, like XP. Will Midori be distributed, or will it be the beginning of a cloud?

The user interface, is probably going to be a big part of the next change in the OS. Consider how much Windows7 was designed to look like the Mac interface, with its jump lists, and taskbar modification and the like.

Welcome

Other interfaces have been designed to take advantage of the Windows 7 like Bumptop. Enter the Copenhagen Concept.

Copenhagen was designed by Cullen Dudas. It is is a User Experience concept. “It is unique in the fact that it manages to bring together classic design, contemporary design, usability, and art.”

Switch User

Unlike most interfaces, which are linear, the Copenhagen Concept is organized in an entirely different way. It is video like. It makes the interface reactive to the user. It can change and grow, or shrink.

Stuff On My Laptop

The Copenhagen Concept changes the desktop, changes the taskbar, changes the logon screen; it changes a whole host of features.

The Windows8 interface may or may not look like the Copenhagen Concept. Microsoft is aware of the concept as Dudas has made contacts with different employees of Microsoft. One cannot determine if there is enthusiasm at the corporate level.  However, Microsoft can look at this and decide whether to follow in this path for the user interface, or pursue an entirely different format. But it is worth watching.

Watch a video about the Copenhagen Concept:

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Recently there have been rumours that the next version of Windows will move the whole platform completely over to 128-bit architecture, dumping 32 and 64-bit compatibility completely.

This first came about because of a news story broken by Microsoft Kitchen a few days ago in which Robert Morgan, a senior research and development officer at Microsoft posted the following on his LinkedIn profile.

Experience
Senior Research & Development
Microsoft
Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry

January 2002 – Present (7 years 10 months)

Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and long-term projects. Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM.

Since then the sweaty masses have, frankly let their imaginations run away with themselves so I thought we needed to look at the situation more objectively, fact by fact.

It’s true that AMD and Intel are working on 128-bit chips, this is something that’s been out there for a while now.  But Windows 8 can’t possibly be 128-bit only.  The reasons for this are as follows.

Windows 7 is still, sadly, saddled with 32-bit compatibility.  This is despite the fact that almost every modern processor supports true 64-bit computing.  This is purely to maintain compatibility with older software (primarily in Microsoft’s most important market, business).  XP Mode, the virtualisation plug-in that allows you to run older software in a licensed copy of XP, goes some way towards addressing this and many people are hoping that 32-bit support will be dropped from Windows 8 completely.  Sadly though, it can’t happen.

This is because in order for XP Mode to work you need hardware virtualisation support on the motherboard and nowhere near enough motherboards yet support this.  By the time Windows 8 comes out it’s possible that all motherboards will, but Microsoft have to get started on Windows 8 code now, and they can’t guarantee this will happen.

It is for exactly the same reasons why Windows 8 can never be 128-bit only.  By the time the technology is mature enough Windows 8 will be ready to launch but the cost of the chips will still be extremely expensive.  They will, I predict, only be used in server farms for hard-core virtualisation tasks on servers.

It’s much more likely that Windows 8 Server will offer full support for 128-bit architecture and that the feature will then be ported to the business and consumer editions of Windows for Windows 9.

The move to 128-bit in itself isn’t such a big job, but it becomes a nightmare when you consider that you also have to maintain compatibility with 32-bit applications.  I can’t foresee a situation where we can have an operating system that supports 32, 64 and 128-bit code simultaneously while still remaining stable.  The only reason that Windows 8 Server could support it is because the 32-bit legacy support has already been dropped from Windows 7 Server.

For all the people who want to see 128-bit support in Windows 8, forget it.  Frankly you wouldn’t get any benefit from it at all anyway.  No software will be written to support it for years to come, full 64-bit support in software is only beginning to appear now, and it will offer the average user or gamer no additional benefits over the 64-bit architecture you already have.

Unless and until the whole computing experience we use in our daily lives demands a move to such technology, it will remain in the server farms of the future.

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Evidence is emerging that not only will Windows 8 not ship with a 32bit version like Windows 7 (32 & 64bit), but that Microsoft is also working on a 128 bit version of Windows 8, expected in 2011.  Will a 128 bit OS be launched in 2011?

More: Windows 8 News

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Windows 7 when it launched on October 22nd will include versions for both 32 bit and 64 bit users.  It’s successor Windows 8 expected in 2011 was expected to only come in a 64 bit version, because Windows Server 2008 R2 was released in 64 bit form only and the next Windows OS was expected to follow suit.

However it is now believed that Windows 8 might ship in 64bit AND 128 bit versions, based on the linkedin profile of Microsoft employee Robert Morgan:

Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects. Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP, and IBM.

Robert Morgan is working to get IA-128 working backwards with full binary compatibility on the existing IA-64 instructions in the hardware simulation to work for Windows 8 and definitely Windows 9.

Whether or not Windows 8 will support 128bit remains to be seen, but at this stage Microsoft are at least considering it.  I’m not sure how likely this will be though; 64 bit adoption is still low and although this will increase by 2011 I just fear that adding 128bit to Windows 8 will create a poor customer experience like Vista 64 bit, where driver availability was poor.

Eight Forums have manged to track down Robert via linkedin and they claim that he’s agreed to give them an interview  and he’s letting their readers ask questions.  Questions have to be submitted by October 11th.  If he really has agreed to do the interview, I’d be amazed if he still had a job at Microsoft on October 12th as news on Windows 8 is clearly embargoed at the moment.

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