Rumor: Windows 8 Going RTM in 2012.2:10 PM - January 25, 2011 by Kevin Parrish - source: Geeksmack . A supposed leaked roadmap from Microsoft reveals a retail release of Windows 8 for January 2013. My QUESTION: Will this windows 8 be like windows 98se was just a glorified service pack for windows 98 or will it be a completly different system like xp is to 98se? My OPINION: is that it will be like 98se same system just different name to sell more software! What is your opinion!
Windows 98SE situation was a little different. Windows 98SE was actually a service pack equivalent, just in those days 12 years ago most people who had internet only had dialup so distribution of a service pack several 100MB in size would have been difficult otherwise. Windows 98SE was available as a free update to Windows 98, you just had to order it online an pay for postage and handling only. From memory it was around $12 or so in Australia, although it varied from country to country. The upgrade was done from Windows 98 to 98SE by running Windows setup from the 98SE disk from Windows. Although the setup programme ran like installing a fresh copy of 98, you couldn't install 98SE directly from it on a fresh installation. The 98SE upgrade disk only worked from an installed copy of 98! The reason why 98SE was free for 98 users? Like I said, it was actually just a service pack! Using the 98SE vs 98 analogy for Windows 8 vs 7 is incorrect, Windows 8 will be so much more than just a service pack 2 equivalent of Windows 7. It will still be based off the same codepath as Vista and 7, but when you look at that point alone, Windows 7 is superior to Vista despite this fact. Windows 8 will most likely be the last from the Vista codepath, going by previous versions of Windows lasting for 3 iterations. Windows 3.0 --> Windows 3.1 --> Windows 3.11 Windows 95 --> Windows 98/98SE --> Windows ME Windows 2000 --> Windows XP --> Windows Server 2003/XP x64# #Server 2003/XP x64 was Windows 5.2 vs 5.1 for XP. You could actually modify 2003 to be XP like quite easily, everything is in the code including the XP boot screens. Windows 8 may end up in the end having the version number 6.5, or more likely 6.8 (the .8 signifying Windows 8).