Wait! We've heard that one before?
It is the first time, since XP and XP Professional, that following Windows OS download, I'm immediately ready to change OS but following Windows 8 Preview and facing the industry, I didn't think Microsoft would pull it off, yet they have, and in a way I could have never foreseen.
Windows 8 Consumer - is without a doubt, a consumer machine but if you are looking to Windows 8 Consumer as developer OS, add Microsoft Expression Pro, WebMatrix, Visual Studio 11 Express and Blend for Visual Studio, IIS, and you have a well aligned developer environment, however, traditionally, that is not how Microsoft OS's would have been released. If you wanted to do some developing, in the past you would have had to purchase the Professional, Ultimate, or a Windows Server OS but everything has changed and with a surprise, as well.
Windows Server 8 Beta - the Data Center and core Version - is a Windows 8 immediately ready for the developer or professional, who is overlooking more then one machine and/or cloud virtual installations. Anciently, if you wanted a machine which was going to be a work horse, you would have purchased Windows NT, Window 2000, and possibly today Windows 2008 R2 for everyone, but now, Windows 8 Consumer and Windows Server 8 are role based machines. No matter the version, Windows 8 is so well designed and so functionally accurate, you could be quite comfortable in providing Office 365 and Office Ultimate on a Windows 8 Consumer machine, a Windows 8 Consumer machine with all the bells and whistles supporting the Web and Apps developer, Office 365 and SharePoint, on either machine type depending on the application, and the person(s) responsible for overlooking all systems, definitely Windows Server 8.
So, we have two Windows 8 and a Windows VHD download machine, each with Hyper-V capability and of course with Windows Server 8 we might expect, as with past Windows Server versions, added roles as the completed Windows Server 8 version comes to market but that's not all Microsoft is about.
Each of the roles mentioned above - either involve developing Windows Apps and distributing them through Windows Store and how Microsoft roles are moving content to the cloud. However, with long term industry experience, including both computers and basically all retail product lines, a third year member of Microsoft WebsiteSpark and Microsoft Partner Programs, TechNet emails and MSDN Library and Downloads, there is another topic of interest I'm thinking of bringing to the Web?
Why Would Brand Need To Bring Their Product Line Presentations To The Cloud?
More specifically, on behalf of Microsoft, "How and why would we bring brand product presentations to an Azure Database?"
Interested in the topic? Send up an email to mailto:page_programming@hotmail.com I'll notify you when the topic is ready for the Web.