A look at the Windows 8 Developer Preview

KUALA LUMPUR-During a field visit that included a stop at the Microsoft Innovation Centre located at Cyberjaya, Malaysia's first purpose-built cyber city, and a precursor to a further 23 currently being developed; visitors, including journalists from across the Asia Pacific region, happened upon a running developer preview for Windows 8, the latest Microsoft Operating System set to launch a publicly (beta) by February 2012. As of this month, and following its September 2011 launch, there have already been three million downloads of the Windows 8 developer preview.

Called "Metro," an user interface for touchscreens / tablet PCs, the version viewed in Malaysia is a larger, tile-based interface, compared to the PC version, that is apparently modeled after the Windows Phone 7 interface.

Also to be launched in February 2011 will be the Windows 8 Store, initially launched with just free apps, the store will also, later, include paid and even open source apps for "Metro," which is the reason behind the developer preview of Microsoft's newest platform.