As soon as Window 7 was released, Microsoft probably started working on Windows 8
(and it's rumoured there will be a Windows 9 in 2014). In true project
management style they broke the task down into steps, consequently, as the
development team delivers a major objective, so a milestone is reached.
M1 (Milestone One) Prototype available to internal
testers in October 2010. A time of much secrecy.
M2 Beta 1 Was created in September 2010, but unlike
previous Microsoft operating systems, this beta stage was not
available to the public. Various builds 7955, 7959
M3 At this milestone in July 2011
Windows 8 will be pretty much feature complete. However, there was
still much secrecy (I wonder why), and still no publically available beta.
Beta Version - Translates to: 'Microsoft has done its
best to produce a working
model'. Inevitably, this prototype is buggy and is not feature
complete, in the case of Windows 8 not released for public testing'.
Preview Version - New terminology, betas are now
Developer Preview, Consumer Preview and Enterprise Preview.
RC (Enterprise Preview) - Release Candidate. Microsoft will not add any
significant features. At this stage Windows 8
will have the look and feel of the final product.
Build Numbers for Windows 8:
You can display this number on the desktop with
PaintDesktopVersion, or else search the registry for CurrentBuildNumber.
Major Version Number - Confusingly, Windows 8 reports to
be 6. XP was 5, and way back there was NT 4.
Minor Version Number - 2 as in 6.2 for Windows 8,
Windows 7 was 6.1 and
Vista was 6.0. (XP was version 5.x)
Note: Version numbers rarely correspond to build numbers.
RTM - Release to Manufacturer.
Guy Recommends: SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset v10
This Engineer's Toolset v10 provides a comprehensive console of utilities
for troubleshooting computer problems. Guy says it helps me
monitor what's occurring on the network, and each tool teaches me more about how the
underlying system operates.
One factor that may be relevant is that Microsoft will no longer support
Vista after April 10 2012, incidentally, my friend 'Barking Eddie' said
Microsoft did not support Vista before 2012, so there will be no change
there!
Beta 1 September 2010 (M2)
Pre-release Version February 2011 (M2)
Feature complete July 2011 Build 8042 (M3)
Developer Preview September 2011 (BUILD Conference)
Consumer Preview February 2012
Release Candidate June 2012
Final Release August 2012 (M4)
Note: There people complained that Vista
betas were just about finding bugs. Guy says beware what you ask
for, because with Windows 8 there are no early beta
versions for the public to try and testing.
Calculating IP Address ranges is a black art, which many network managers
solve by creating custom Excel spreadsheets. IPAT cracks this problem of
allocating IP addresses in networks in two ways:
For Mr Organized there is a nifty subnet calculator, you enter the network
address and the subnet mask, then IPAT works out the usable addresses and their
ranges. For Mr Lazy IPAT discovers and then displays the IP addresses of existing
computers.
