We’ve been covering the next version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system for quite a while now. Windows 8 will be big, with a truckload of improvements over Windows 7. Installing or upgrading to Windows 8 will be easier and faster, it will offer a touch-friendly boot experience with 30-70% faster boot times. The new operating system will have a smaller memory footprint, able to run on just 1GB of RAM, and of course is built for a mobile future, to run on both desktops, laptops and tablets.
Since September 2011, anyone could download the Windows 8 Developer Preview, which was an early version of the operating system. Well now Microsoft seems to be getting close to the public beta of Windows 8, called “Consumer Preview”. A new Bing homepage just went online showing Microsoft’s favorite Siamese fighting fish swimming across the screen. Microsoft used the betta fish as a mascot for it’s beta releases of Windows 7 and it seems it will be making a comeback for Windows 8 as well.
None of the links and functionally of the homepage are up yet, but it helps to confirm that Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be the name for the public beta of Windows and that it will probably be coming as promised this February. Microsoft received a lot of feedback from the Developer Preview, getting it to rethink some of its initial design choices. It’s probable that the Consumer Preview would act in the same way but also as a marketing tool in getting early adopters on-board.
