Microsoft earlier this week released its upcoming Windows 8 operating system to manufacturers, signaling the end of development and paving the way for a worldwide public release in late October. This does not mean everyone will have to wait that long to get their hands on Windows 8, with Premium MSDN and Technet subscribers scheduled to get their copies on August 15, 2012. Well, at least that’s what Microsoft had planned.
There is no dearth of those who would like to see nothing more than a mea culpa from Microsoft apologizing for wrongly trying to shove the Metro design language down their throats with Windows 8. But we’re sure these critics wouldn’t mind an unceremonious dumping of Metro one bit either. And guess what? Microsoft has just granted their wish by quietly doing away with Metro. But unfortunately, the company is merely getting rid of the name and not the typography-based design language itself.
Windows 7 is two months away from becoming the second newest consumer desktop operating system from Microsoft (it already is, if you count the Windows 8 Release to Manufacturing, or RTM), but will it surpass Windows XP in market share before Windows 8 is made generally available to the public? It's going to be a tight race, but it looks like Windows 7 will jump ahead by the end of August.
Microsoft today released its touch-friendly Windows 8 operating system to manufacturers (RTM, or Released to Manufacturing). The release signals a milestone that indicates the software juggernaut has completed product development and exterminated enough bugs to feel confident enough to hand out final code to OEM partners. Companies like Dell and Hewlett-Packard can now begin prepping new Windows 8 PCs and tablets, which they'll introduce to the public next month.
Windows users have already marked their calendars for October 26, 2012, which is the day Microsoft joins the touch-computing revolution with the launch of Windows 8. Not the least bit surprising, it's also the day Microsoft will begin selling its Surface tablet, a revelation that appears in a recent 10-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in lieu of an official announcement.
Microsoft is already starting to milk what it hopes is a Windows 8 cash cow before the operating system comes home to pasture. In case anyone has forgotten, Microsoft is also in the business of selling hardware accessories, something it's been doing for the past three decades, and it continues today with the introduction of new mice and keyboards, all of which "work beautifully with Windows 8," the company claims.
In a recent interview with Valve CEO Gabe Newell, the outspoken unofficial head of PC Gaming leveled some pretty damning criticism on Windows 8. Using words such as 
Will Microsoft’s Surface tablet really start at over $1,000? That is the question that has been on everyone’s mind ever since a listing for the upcoming Microsoft-branded tablet surfaced on Swedish site Webhallen. But we need not speculate any further as the Swedish e-tailer’s Surface pricing itself is pretty speculative.
You may have heard that Valve is hard at work porting its Steam client to the Linux platform, but it's not because the company has developed a sudden affinity towards the open source space. The real reason is because Valve views Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 release as a "catastrophe" in the making for the PC industry at large, or at least that's the viewpoint held by Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director at Valve.
The Windows 8 app store in the consumer preview has been somewhat lackluster in terms of quality, but this can be easily explained. The beta version of Windows 8 still doesn’t allow developers to charge for metro applications, which means the most polished offerings likely won’t surface until release on October 26th (pun somewhat intended). We have to admit we’ve been a bit curious as to how Microsoft will handle transactions in the Windows 8 store, and in a 
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