It’s the news everybody has been waiting for, and now Microsoft have confirmed that Windows 8 will be formally unveiled at the BUILD conference in September. This conference, which runs from the 13th to the 16th of September 2011 in Anaheim, California was formerly known as the Professional Developers Conference (PDC).
The conference is “a new event that shows modern hardware and software developers how to take advantage of the future of Windows. Learn how to work with the all new touch-centric user experience to create fast, fluid, and dynamic applications that leverage the power and flexibility of the core of Windows, used by more than a billion people around the world.” It is here that extensive demos will showcase the new operating system and its new features.
It’s the first formal announcement of the new OS in full and Microsoft are playing this up, saying “in 1995, Windows changed the PC. BUILD will show you that Windows 8 changes everything.” This is a bold statement and does imply that Microsoft have, as I’ve long suspected, much grander plans for Windows 8 beyond just tablets.
It is entirely possible that Microsoft will use the event to showcase demonstration smartphones and possibly even cars running the new OS. These are two platforms on which Microsoft already have a good foothold, and it would make sense for them to bring a unified platform across their different form-factors.
One clue to this is on the BUILD website itself, which says “Our approach means no compromises—you get to use whatever kind of device you prefer to run the apps you love.” Obviously cars would be at least partially excluded from this, though a unified platform will be greatly welcomed by everyone.
The advantages of such a platform are enormous, especially if they are all legacy-free. This will mean that everything will be leaner, more easily and more frequently updatable and much more exciting and stable as a result.
What is not in doubt is that Windows 8 will be a departure for the company, especially in terms of legacy support. So far the company has managed to keep its legacy plans mostly under wraps, the only exception being the discovery of their Hyper-V server technology in a recently leaked x64 alpha build of the OS.
It is anticipated that the company will use the move to ARM hardware to justify a wholesale dropping of legacy support natively within the OS. This would instead harness the power of Hyper-V to run older apps. Microsoft have announced though the inclusion of “Windows 7 Mode” which again hints at the dropping of legacy software support.
Steve Ballmer said some months back now that Windows 8 would be a “bold” move for the company, and it will need to be. Getting people to move away from Windows XP was difficult enough. Now that Windows 7 has proven itself, anything less than a bold departure will be a tough sell for Microsoft, and they know it.
The main keynote at the conference will be at 9:00am PST on Tuesday September 13th. This is when the new operating system will be fully unveiled. Following this will be a series of sessions for four days, where the features of Windows 8 and other products including Internet Explorer 10 and the company’s next generation of software development and deployment tools will be discussed and demonstrated in depth.
Windows8News.com will be bringing you all the news from BUILD as it breaks, and we’ll be getting our hands on Windows 8 shortly afterwards, if not on the day. We’ll be able to bring you all the best and most in-depth details and information on the OS directly.
For all the latest news about Windows 8 stay with Windows8News, believe me there’s some very exciting stuff coming up!
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