Dates drawn up by Chris Green. Release dates for Windows products appear to have been leaked. The dates were included in a chart that was drawn up by former Microsoft employee Chris Green and provide a roadmap draft for future Microsoft products, including "Office 2012," "Windows Server 2012" and "Windows 8."
The Microsoft Kitchen blog covered the leak blaming Green for leaving the useful information buried in something else. The future product names in Green's chart are followed by question marks. Green's MSDN blog includes a statement that the opinions in the blog "are not intended to represent my employer's view." Green apparently was trying to provide a helpful overview of mainstream support and extended support time periods for existing Microsoft products. However the future product dates, which no one knew stayed in the chart. If Green's is right, then below are the RTM dates for products that Microsoft has not yet announced:
"Windows 8" on July 1, 2011.
"Windows Server 2012" on July 2, 2012.
"Office 2012" on July 2, 2012.
"SQL Server 2011" on July 1, 2011.
"SharePoint Server 2013" on July 1, 2013.
"Exchange 2013" on July 1, 2013.
"OCS 2010" on Dec. 1, 2010.
What is interesting is that Microsoft appear to have bought the Windows 8 RTM date forward from its normal three-year interval between new operating system releases. But some of the RTM dates are accurate. Windows 7 had its RTM on July 22, 2009, which is one day off from the date listed in Green's chart.
