Windows 8 developer preview now available

Quality not roadmap dates will drive Windows 8 release cycle says Microsoft

In a keynote speech yesterday, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live Division, Steven Sinofsky (pictured above), told delegates at the Microsoft Build conference that the Windows 8 developer preview was now available.

The launch is the first step towards a full Windows 8 launch according to Sinofsky, who said that the path for delivering Windows 8 would be similar to that followed during the development of Windows 7.

The developer preview can be viewed here.

32- and 64-bit versions of the x86 version of the Windows 8 Developer Preview are available.

The next milestone would be a beta release, followed by a release candidate then release-to-manufacturing (RTM), and finally general availability, said Sinofsky.

He added that the release timeline would be "driven by quality not dates".

That could mean that Microsoft will postpone the Windows 8 release from 2012 to a more likely 2013.

Microsoft president of server and tools business, Satya Nadella, will deliver a keynote this morning outlining plans for the next release of Microsoft's server operating system, Windows Server 8.

The developer conference is being held in Anaheim, California, and is running until 16 September.