Windows 9 Preview May Appear in February 2015
The latest tidbit of news coming from the Windows rumor mill is that Microsoft plans to release a preview version of Windows 9 "Threshold" on February 3, 2015. There's no indication that this will be a developer preview or a public one, but given that Windows 9 is expected to ship in April 2015, the latter option seems more likely.
For Windows 8, Microsoft launched the Developer Preview in September 2011 during the BUILD 2011 event. The company then released Windows 8 Consumer Preview at the end of February 2012. Windows 8 went RTM in August 2012 and hit consumer PCs in October 2012. The public beta of Windows 8.1 wasn't released until June 23, 2013, followed by the full release in October. Windows 8.1 Update (8.1.1) arrived in April 2014.
Using this release schedule as a reference, Microsoft is expected to launch Windows 8.1 Update 2 (Windows 8.1.2) sometime this fall, bringing a host of new features like the revised (and beloved) Start Menu, and the ability to run windowed apps on the desktop. This may also be the time period when Microsoft releases the Developer Preview of Windows 9 "Threshold."
The news arrives by way of FaiKee who claims to have obtained a screenshot of Microsoft's plans and posted it on My Digital Life. The tiny smidgen of a schedule reads "Preview Release @ 2015-02-03." That could either mean February 3 or March 2…. you decide.
"OK, seems WZor's "5/15 win9 trial version" is not going to happen..... so here's the part below my last screen-shot," FaiKee writes. "If it's real (couldn't see why it isn't), then you could scrap all previous win9 release speculations."
We know very little about Windows 9; all eyes are glued to Windows 8.1.2 arriving this fall. However, there's speculation that Microsoft will make the platform more desktop friendly. By this October, we should know more about Threshold, especially if the Developer Preview begins to leak onto the Internet.
For now, consider everything about Windows 9 and Windows 8.1.2 to be mere rumor and speculation. Of course, we know they'll eventually make an appearance, but until then, everything is just dips into the rumor pool.

I've used Windows 8 on all the platforms and only on the PC does it fail. My phone is great with WP8, tablets are smooth and easy to use, but on a PC, without a touch screen, it just get frustrating. I preferred the Start menu because it put everything in one easy to browse place. I don't want to change screens whenever I want to open a program, and I don't want every window at fullscreen. Nor do I want my taskbar filled with things that should be on the menu, as I don't want the clutter. I only want to see it when I need it and I don't want to have to search a screen of tiles for it.
Win9 is win8 with more eye candy and most bugs killed. So a little bit better version of win8. Same as win7 was a little bit better version on Vista.
Interesting to see, if the new disk operation system is ready for win9? And does the DX12 also come to win 8.1 machines? Most probably it will, but who knows.
All is all late 2015 or early 2016 may be the first time to really think hardware upgrades. Maybe we even have 20nm GPUs out then, even better would be if second generation of 20nm GPUs are out, so that the worst mistakes has been corrected also in that front.
Interesting to see if they continue to produce new os in every 2-3 year from now on. So the win10 will be out 2017 or 2018. About the same time when win7 will be near the end of its support cycle.
I have been using win8.1 and has been very happy how well it works. Very stable and so on, but I also use Start8 and Modern mix, so I don't see Modern UI menu when I use my Tabletop PC. So this user experience should be quite the same as with win 8.1.2. I have start menu and all programs start in windowed mode. So I expect that win8.1.2 that will be out next autumn will be quite nice from normal user perspective.
The win 9 will also most likely to allow easier virtualization and other aspect that are more suitable to power users. The MS employees have said that win8 was meant to be the "easy" mode to computer usage and later there should be more power user utilities... Heh... Didn't go exactly how they expected, but as I said win8.1.2 seems to be familiar enough to also those not so computer literate persons.
Win10 was supposed to be first real cloud os for MS...Let see if they keep on to that plan...
I'll be sticking with 7 and will be cautious about seeing what 9 brings. My main concern is typically in the gaming space. Microsoft is trying to withhold features from Windows 7 and bait gamers into a Win 8.x upgrade, of course.
Hopefully they'll pull their collective heads out and design a desktop OS with Win 9.
Let 7 users suffer for being to stubborn to adjust.
Let 7 users suffer for being to stubborn to adjust.
But 8 users have had the "benefit" of using such an "excellent" OS for the whole duration between 7 and 9...surely they need no more "reward" than that...
I dunno...I think XP might disagree with you. Don't get me wrong, I *like* 7...but as far as longevity and stability....XP was quite nice...and call me crazy, but I really liked 2000 and used it for a long while after XP came out. (not for fear of new stuff, but because it was stable for its day and was really retired before its time)
Funny, but a lot of people think that Chrome is better than IE, so they download it and install it themselves, then they are happy. Nobody really complains that Microsoft hasn't preinstalled it for them.
Roll forward to Windows 8, technically a more efficient, faster and more secure OS than Windows 7. All it needs is ClassicShell installed and it looks and feels exactly like Windows 7. But people will stamp their feet in rage that they have to do this and want Microsoft to have the Start Menu pre-enabled for them.
There is no difference in these 2 things, an install to get it "just right" the way you like it. Windows 8.1 is the best OS they have ever made, because it does everything Windows 7 does and much much more. Spend as much time configuring it as people do moaning about not having something and they would actually have what they wanted.
Funny, but a lot of people think that Chrome is better than IE, so they download it and install it themselves, then they are happy. Nobody really complains that Microsoft hasn't preinstalled it for them.
Roll forward to Windows 8, technically a more efficient, faster and more secure OS than Windows 7. All it needs is ClassicShell installed and it looks and feels exactly like Windows 7. But people will stamp their feet in rage that they have to do this and want Microsoft to have the Start Menu pre-enabled for them.
There is no difference in these 2 things, an install to get it "just right" the way you like it. Windows 8.1 is the best OS they have ever made, because it does everything Windows 7 does and much much more. Spend as much time configuring it as people do moaning about not having something and they would actually have what they wanted.
You're completely right about the "just right" comment. Windows XP used to take nearly a full day to configure it just the way I want it; not to mention hunting down drivers,etc,etc. Windows 7 again took hours to configure it the way I want it as many of the default apps aren't good enough for my needs. Windows 8 is the same way. I find it crazy to see people who buy a machine with Windows 8 on it, wipe the OS off it and buy a copy of Windows 7. They're basically throwing away money to get a worse experience to Win8 + Classic Shell.
I will agree on version 8.0, however, 8.1 and up they started stripping things, and many of my programs failed to run,. I can only use 8 at this time, unless I buy a different WiFi.
I believe this was/is going to be the subscription version, much like Office 365. But, I see issues, if that were the case. I don't thing a subscription OS is a salable product.