Earlier this summer Microsoft stirred rumors about the launching of its newest operating system, Windows 8.  A preview of the new OS has been showed to demonstrate the user experience.  Based on forecasts, the giant software maker will launch Windows 8 sometime in the second or third quarter of 2012, garnering a good amount of excitement for the new update.

What’s new then in Windows 8?  The new OS is designed to have a touch-centric interface for traditional mouse-and-keyboard PCs as well as tablets.  This will also be the first Windows version to run on ARM-based and Intel x86 chips.  HTML and JavaScript will be the primary development languages of Windows 8.

The next big event people should watch out for is Microsoft’s next major outing for Windows 8.  This should go down next month during the Company’s BUILD developer conference.  Expectations are for Microsoft to show off the development tools of Windows 8 together with its new capabilities.  In short, a lot of information release about Windows 8 should be revealed during this day, with some perks for the developer community in particular.

Similar to Windows 7 wherein an Engineering Windows 7 blog was created, Microsoft has also launched yesterday Building Windows 8 or B8, as written in the blog of Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky.  B8 is created to bring out the best Microsoft could offer based on the real needs and demands of their consumers.

“For the Windows team, this blog is an important part of developing Windows 8, as was our blog for Windows 7. Blogging allows us to have a two-way dialog with you about design choices, real-world data and usage, and new opportunities that are part of Windows 8. Together, we will start the unique adventure of bringing a major product to market. We’re genuinely excited to talk about the development of Windows 8 and to engage thoughtfully with the community of passionate end-users, developers, and information professionals,” writes SInofsky.

With the new features of Windows 8 and with Microsoft’s effort with B8 in reaching out to their customers, the software giant already has an idea on how their next OS may evolve after Windows 8 –  a Fast Machine Booting Through Streaming Storage.  It’s a key update to Microsoft from a business standpoint, with heavy reliance on the cloud and leveraging machines as portals to remotely stored data.

Access will be a differentiating factor here, along with management and integrated features for content once it’s been accessed.  These are the angles both Google and Apple are taking with their upcoming lineups, and Microsoft will have to continue to reel in its leveraging capabilities across its own product line to truly compete on the consumer level.