Windows 8

I apologize as well if I misunderstood your meaning. All I was saying is the word is officially out Windows 8 is around the corner in the since it could coincide with the released of Flight. For me it's a little crazy as we haven't gotten used to Windows 7 yet. I first got word of it last week on my job from one of our developers (I'm a Systems Analyst by trade). I didn't believe it so I Googled it and found allot of info buzzing on the Net about it. I thought I'd post it here as we have no idea when Flight will be released. Both of these programs could go hand in hand. It caught me off guard so many here are dismissing it when we saw what happened with FSX and Vista.

There is no substantiated word about Windows 8. A date (2012) appeared on a Windows timeline chart at an MS presentation and that's it. There are many, many, rumors (as always). I would expect USB 3.0 support, enhanced touch support, and a new .NET framework to appear in that time frame that provides more support for Cloud (Azure) computing and parallel multitasking as well as enhancements to the data access layer. I would not expect any groundbreaking changes, including 128 bit support since there is absolutely no reason for it at this time (or maybe even in this century) and since 64 bit support is still far from universal. Given the usual market adoption rates it will be two years before we begin to see major deployments of Win 7 in the commercial enterprise market - that's where the money is. MS isn't going to rock that boat with a new OS release in the middle of that cycle after the Vista fiasco. I'm a developer and systems engineer and have a pretty fair idea of what is and isn't commercially feasible and desirable and have worked with Windows since the first release. MS is in business to make money - they aren't going to do anything that runs counter to that; their philosophy is evolution rather than revolution with a steady eye on backward compatibility. Win 95 was a necessary exception, because they had to go to 32 bits to support the needs of the enterprise - and even then it took several generations of the OS to put the 16 bit legacy behind. I won't comment on FSX but Vista was the result of trying too much too fast and discarded most of the revolutionary concepts along the way to reality. Win 7 is an excellent OS that provides a useful and stable architecture for the future that won't be quickly discarded.DJ