Wzor is the known source for reliable rumours. (Lol!- can I say that in sensible English)
fwiw, Wzor seem to have someone on the inside, who leaks (sometimes) good info
This is an edited translation from their site: (Some trivia has been deleted)
The screenshot shown in BUILD 2014 where it was shown on the start menu with tiles, made with an intermediate working build of Windows 8 and Windows 9, but it's
not Windows 9 Developer Preview. (Screenshot not included in this translation)
Whether it will be the released Update 2 for Windows 8.1 or not until Windows 9, has not finally decided.
Speculation is , the new decision on the Start button
will be included in the 2nd update of Windows 8.1.
This was a follow up comment from "Info World" (You can read quite a lot, in this context, on their site:
http://www.infoworld.com/search/goo...BnHvw&form_id=infoworld_searchbox_header_form Wzor makes several observations in his/her/their post:
Some variation on the revived Windows desktop Start menu, demonstrated by
Terry Myerson at the Build 2014 conference, will be released this fall in an update to Windows 8.1. (Myerson promised in his presentation that Microsoft "would be making those [Start menu] features available to all Windows 8.1 users as an update.")
The new desktop Start menu is not in the Windows 9 Developer Preview (and raises all sorts of interesting questions about the current state of the Win9 Developer Preview).
There's a dispute inside Microsoft about whether to call this version "Windows 8.2" or "Windows 8.1 Update 2." I personally favor the more accurate name "(Windows 8.1 Update) Update," or "81UpUp" for short, but doubt that'll gain much traction. Seriously, the lack of clear branding in all of this belies a much greater Microsoft malaise and confuses the living wzorness out of customers. Microsoft couldn't make it more obtuse if it tried.
In Windows 9 there will also be a Start menu on the Metro Start screen, only available on computers without touchscreens and on servers. (At least, I think that's what Wzor's saying.
Windows 9 may be free or may have versions that are free.
Microsoft has a "Windows Cloud" in the works, with the core initial version of Windows similar to Windows Starter edition and a more functional version of Windows available for a fee in the cloud. (I've been predicting a Windows 365 for some time, and this certainly sounds like a step in that direction. In this case, the devil's very much in the details.) Wzor compares this situation to Apple, but I think he mistyped and meant Google, with Chrome OS and the browser extensions -- unless he was referring to Office on the iPad, which works in a completely different way.
Notably, if I understand the Russian translation, Wzor didn't talk about the ability to run Metro apps in windows on the desktop (a la Stardock's ModernMix), a welcome capability that Myerson demonstrated at Build 2014. He didn't talk about availability of Windows 9, nor did he talk about the "three versions" speculation -- Metro, Personal, and Enterprise Windows 9 -- that's been discussed. There was no mention of "Threshold," widely believed to be the code name for Windows 9.
Finally -- and intriguingly -- Wzor didn't talk about the Start menu Myerson demonstrated, which combined elements of the Windows 7 Start menu and live tiles from the Metro Start screen. Thus, we don't know if the interim versions Wzor has seen merely mimic Win7 Start -- we've seen that done well in Stardock's Start8 add-in -- or if Microsoft will bring the whole live tile shtick to the desktop.
Foley expounded on Wzor's revelations, adding several of her own. Here's what she said, quoting unnamed sources:
The as-yet-unnamed Windows 8.1 Update Update could be available in August.
The Update Update "may include a version of a new Start menu which Microsoft showed off during its Build 2014 developer conference in early April. But according to my sources, this second update is unlikely to include the ability to run Metro-Style apps in floating windows on the desktop."
Microsoft was hoping/planning to get Windows 9 finished by spring 2015. The aforementioned Metro-Style apps floating in desktop windows -- something Microsoft execs also showed off in early form at Build 2014 -- is supposedly one of the features likely to be part of Windows 9.
Reading between the lines, I think it's clear that in August we'll see (yet another) Update to Windows 8.1 Update, which will incorporate a Start8-like Win7 style desktop Start menu. Windows fans have been clamoring for that feature for more than two years -- ever since the first leaked copies of Windows 8 hit. With dozens of Windows 8 add-ins that bring back the Start menu widely available, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.
While there's much to be said for Microsoft accelerating the pace of Windows updates -- Foley makes excellent points in her article -- the fact is all the Windows 8.1 Update Update Updates in the world won't help much in getting Windows back on its feet. The term "Windows 8" is anathema in the market. Everybody, from CEOs to 7-11 clerks, from Tallahassee to Timbuktu "knows" there are problems with Windows 8. Microsoft has to find a way to get a truly new version of Windows -- Windows 9, Windows X, Windows whatever it's called -- out the door
quickly.
The good news for us Windows diehards: The way things are shaping up, Windows 9 may be a very good product.
Indeed, progress, and the Panel discussion "Windows Shadow Cloud" on the prototype of a cloud-based Windows Cloud, says that the client portion of the cloud system want to make free for download, and the download will be implemented immediately in the biosah PC, just like Apple. (at least now it looks, right now the system is booting from the internal network of the Corporation)
It is not clear how much it will be functional offline (offline) and without subscribing to services like the cloud-based Microsoft Office Cloud work over which go under cover of total secrecy.
Now Office Cloud completely integriorovan in client-side Windows Cloud distribution.
This functionality is most likely in the (offline) will be at the level of the Windows Starter or below.
On this project we can tell very little, just a statement of fact.
In fact it is very difficult to describe innovations without showing detailed screenshots, but alas, we can't show you them, assemblies are available exclusively in the bowels of the Windows Team and the final decisions!
In addition, the story was reported with a former employee of Microsoft still affects our ability to provide sources and to publish information. Changes have also been made to the company's partners. We still appreciate the risks in the event of a resumption of activity.
