9/20/2011 06:50:00 PM
dannzfay
Save the date: March 12, 2012. This is the last day when early adopters are able to use the fully fledged Windows Developer Preview.
Microsoft gave green light to downloads of Windows 8 Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) a week ago, starting on September 13, 2011.
The first public preview of Windows 8 will have some six months of life to enjoy after which it will expire.
This should of course come as no surprise, since it’s the software giant’s policy for all pre-release software.
Windows 8 Preview Build 8102 M3 too is time-bombed, and according to the information that the operating system displays, it’s set to expire on March 12, 2012.
This means that testers only have about half a year to play with the Windows 8 Developer Preview working as it is today.
Most likely, Windows 8 Preview Build 8102 M3 will continue to work even after March 12, 2012, although the expiration deadline is bound to bring with it the crippling of the user experience.
As far as I’m concerned, the date is an indication that users will already have a new pre-release Build of Windows 8 to play with ahead of March 12, 2012.
According to what little Microsoft did reveal about the development milestones of Windows 8, M3 will be followed by the Beta, with the Release Candidate (RC) planned for availability after that, and RTM (release to manufacturing) afterwards.
There’s no telling at this point in time when Windows 8 Beta is offered to early adopters, but just as it was the case for Build 8102, this development milestone will undoubtedly be public.
Personally, I think that testers will get Windows 8 Beta at least a few months ahead of the expiration deadline of Build 8102. I’d venture out to say that a CES 2012 release could be realistic, although I must stress that this is nothing but speculation at this point in time.
Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.
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