Microsoft has earlier previewed Windows 8 build 7867, today at the Computex 2011, build 7985 was demoed.
Windows 8—a name that may not last until the anticipated 2012 launch—made its public debut this week and stunned many pundits who've grown accustomed to Microsoft showing the engine before the interface and not the other way around. My first experience with Internet Explorer 9, for example, was at a developers preview where the company showed only the engine and an interface that lacked virtually all interface accoutrements.
Windows 8, by contrast, looked surprisingly polished for a pre-developer's build. As most people know by now, it looks remarkably like Windows Phone 7, complete with tiles, a gesture-driven interface and few boundaries. This is almost exactly what I asked Microsoft to do last year, but they did me one better. Windows 8 is not a blown-up version of the Windows Phone 7 mobile OS. It is Windows proper with a completely new, Windows-phone-influenced interface. Not a shell or layer, mind you, but a new interface that takes the best of the touch, and gesture-based ideas from Microsoft's relatively young mobile interface.