In sunny Monte Carlo, the haute couture revelations are matched only by the inside info unleashed by the major corporation's executives. While Microsoft themselves were tight-lipped, we managed to discover the Windows 8 mega-beta-launch date.

The huge freebie period of global beta-testing that Microsoft employed with Windows 7, will be repeated with Windows 8. Fact.

What is less certain, is how long that testing period will be.

You have to remember that with Vista, Microsoft (and its poor customers) struggled against the ultra-rigged Longhorn Driver Model (LDM). But, once Vista had been in the market for a good long while, hardware manufacturers understood what was needed – and they adapted. Pretty well in fact. As a result, Windows 7 was a masterpiece of a launch OS – streets ahead of anything that Microsoft had ever launched before.

Sure, we can all play 20:20 vision with the hindsight look at what the Gates' legacy should have done with tablets etc, but the idea of a single DVD disk that can get you from ‘blank machine hardware only' to ‘operational PC with base line drivers for mainboard, audio and graphics installed' in way less than half an hour, is not bad.

Being so obviously born in a leap year, will Microsoft-users be jumping for a hit from their online dealer?

It's hard to calculate how much of a beating the Microsoft Windows 8 download servers will take, but you can be sure that even if at least 1 in 5 of your mates chooses to download, and that's repeated globally, then we could be looking at hundreds of millions of downloads of a whoppingly huge bit of software.

KitGuru says: Maybe Microsoft should invest in one of those torrent streaming thingies.

Comments below or in the KitGuru forums. Shirley guest appearance courtesy of Mageek.

Become a Patron!