We heard rumors of Microsoft being already just about done with Windows 8 Milestone 2. Now On the roadmap we have, final M2 build candidate is pointed to arrive on February 23. And according to the roadmap, the coding for Milestone 3 is due to start on February 28.
Milestone 2 took the Windows client team five months. If Milestone 3 take another five months that would put its completion date around the end of July. Factor in a month or so for any kind of private Community Technology Preview testing, and a beta around the time of this year’s Professional Developers Conference.
So if Microsoft does follow history and deliver a Win 8 Beta 1, Beta 2 and Release Candidate before RTMing, Windows 8 is looking like a mid-2012 RTM.