We do know that Microsoft is secretly drawing Windows 8 at their lab, but everything is at the super early stage at the moment. It’s true that Windows 8 will have multi-platform support to incorporate Windows effectively into tablets, but when will it actually arrive?

Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley recently publicizes the slide above which she trusts to be genuine. The timeline shows the major milestone dates for a Windows 8 (aka, “Windows Next”) release – an OS that M. JoFo believes to be focused on tablets (aka, “Lap PCs” in Microsoft parlance) with its touch-centric design.

According to the slide, we’re looking at an M2 milestone this month followed by M3 in July or August. Foley says that would put Microsoft on track for a Windows 8 beta release right around Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) event in September followed by a second beta in 2012 before being released to manufacturing around the summer of 2012 — just like we heard early last year and just in time for Dell’s Hancock tablet. Thing seemed to be arranged nicely.

SOURCE via Tech Republic