Windows 8 launches October 26

Steven Sinofosky, president of the Windows & Windows Live division, announced the date while a Microsoft sales meeting this afternoon. Windows 8 follows other October launches -- its predecessor and XP. Vista should have been as so then, however Microsoft couldn't ship in the near future enough, unbelievably missing Christmas 2006.

The first week of August

Microsoft plans to release gold code the first week of August and make Windows 8 right away available to volume-license subscribers. Everyone else will wait for Windows 8.

Windows Server 2012 release to manufacturing is expected around the same time, nevertheless Microsoft plans to make it widely available sooner, in September.

Windows 8 is out and away Microsoft's most ambitious version ever, and it's the riskiest undertaking, too. When viewed alongside Office 2013, Microsoft's new flagship operating system marks a dramatic directional change. Afterwards years of denial, Microsoft's leadership evidently accepts the transition from the PC to cloud-connected device eras is then underway. For most of the Noughties, Microsoft acted like IBM while the last big computing era shift -- from mainframes to PCs -- and sought to preserve existing revenue streams and clients.

Risk-adverse Microsoft is without warning big risk-taker, pushing a jarring however enticing new Windows user interface, releasing its own tablet, lowering the initial upgrade price and making a priority native code development. Considering that large businesses compromise the majority of Microsoft clients, and they typically resist change of any kind, the company takes major risks in point of fact.