It appears that we have our first little glimpse of what Microsoft has to offer in their next Windows Operating System. According to various posts across the internet there has been information leaked on what features Windows 8 will have.

For someone like myself who normally gets acquainted with a new operating system well before it becomes publicly available this is great news, because from my perspective, by the time Windows 7 had shipped I had already been using it for well over a year and it was getting old already. That said, Windows 7 is still teaching me a few lessons as the latest Microsoft Operating Systems are about as feature rich as they come, one would be unwise to claim they know all there is to know.

It looks like Windows 8 features as they are currently proposed are looking quite good and very relevant to the emerging markets to come. Features that stood out to me were claims of 'instant on' boot times, Graphically Rich UI, and included App Store.

I must say the information appears mildly generic and non specific to any real features. But it is early days. I'm guessing we will start to see early betas in 2011 with a possible release date of late 2011, early to mid 2012.

For more information check out these links:

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win8_leak.asp

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3890231/Windows-8-Features-Leaked.htm