Microsoft employees have dropped a few Windows 8 hints on their LinkedIn profiles recently.
Super sleuth and ZDNet SEO expert Stephen Chapman uncovered a large amount of LinkedIn profiles referencing Windows 8. Chapman has also uncovered some documents and job postings that specifically reference Windows 8. There’s a large amount of posts and most are lacking detail but here’s the important ones that we can see:
Since shipping Multitouch for Windows 7 I have moved on to other modes of input, landing on the “Advanced Input” team for Windows 8.
I’m greatly looking forward to releasing what I truly believe will be the most important Windows ever shipped, and I’m anxious to see the reaction people will have to the ideas we’ve decided to pursue.
Driving client and server security and platform attestation based on the Trusted Platform Module for Windows 8 in the Platform Integrity Organization of the Microsoft Core OS Business Unit, Redmond, USA.
- Extensive research with the TPM 1.2 and strong ties to TPM manufacturers, OEMs and the TCG
- Significant contributions to the TPM v.next specification in the TCG
- Architected, designed and wrote extended the TPM support inWindows 8
- Contributed to DRTM launched hypervisor prototype
- Close relations to Intel’s UEFI group around authenticated boot
- Several cross group and organizational incubation projects that allow other features and products to leverage strong platform crypto and attestation
- Filed 8 patents around TPM Data Protection, Secure Hyper Visor Launch and Platform Attestation
- Several Windows 8 platform crypto and integrity features that cannot be disclosed at this timeResult: Windows 8 will change the game in terms of platform security and platform trust.
Identity is a key pillar of Windows Next and is strategic to the future of all software at Microsoft.
Managing the Windows 8 device compatibility project. Goal: Make sure devices that worked with Vista and Windows 7 also work withWindows 8.
Although the posts are fairly basic in nature they do reveal some key aspects of Windows 8 – Platform security, Identity, advanced multitouch inputs and device compatibility. Microsoft is currently compiling escrow Milestone 2 builds with a view to start work on Milestone 3 in late February. Microsoft’s escrow stage for Windows 8 is a significant stage towards a Windows 8 beta. The escrow stage marks the fact that Microsoft is ready to compile a final M2 build during its development stage. Microsoft is expected to finish one more Milestone phase and then deliver a beta copy of the OS around September for the company’s annual Professional Developers Conference (PDC).
Microsoft may introduce Windows 8 ARM based tablets ahead of a full desktop release according to recent reports. Microsoft’s competitive tablet strategy is believed to be further along than expected. Dell’s recently leaked Tablet Roadmap revealed that the OEM has marked Q1 2012 as its date for a Windows 8 based slate. WinRumors understands that Microsoft has been working on an ARM based version of Windows for nearly a year and that it is laboring hard to bring this to the market as soon as possible. Microsoft has previously promised a “major revamp” of Windows for slate applications, that will come in the next version, Windows 8.
Microsoft has so far been extremely quiet on the Windows 8 front. Windows Chief, Steven Sinofsky, took to the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January to introduce a technology preview of Microsoft’s Windows ARM support and show off an early build of Windows 8. Microsoft is partnering with ARM-based manufactures NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to produce new Tablet devices. Rumors suggest that Microsoft will create a dual-UI for Windows 8. A tile-based user interface codenamed “Mosh” will reportedly be included.
Steve Ballmer has described the next release of Windows as the company’s “riskiest product bet”. It is understood that Microsoft will feature deep cloud integration into the future OS to realise its vision of “three screens and a cloud”.