Windows 8 To RTM In August, Retail In October
 

On the heels of last week’s announcement of Microsoft’s promotional Windows 8 upgrade pricing, Microsoft has announced a tentative delivery schedule for Windows 8 today at their Worldwide Partner Conference

As it currently stands Microsoft is on track to have Windows 8 reach Release To Manufacturing (RTM) in the first week of August. Retail availability will follow in turn in late October, in order to give Microsoft time to certify additional language packs and to give OEMs time to prepare Windows 8 systems. Unsurprisingly this roughly parallels Windows 7’s release schedule, which saw it go RTM in late July and hit retail in late October, which ended up working out rather well for Microsoft and their partners.

As for those of you on the inside track looking to test Windows 8, while Microsoft hasn’t announced the complete release plans for MSDN and TechNet, Enterprise Software Assurance customers are being told that they’ll have access as early as August. MSDN, TechNet, and Software Assurance typically receive software at roughly the same time, and the release of Windows 8 is widely expected to be similar.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6078/w...ail-in-october