Microsoft roadmap pegs Windows 8 release for 2012, or just after the world's end

It's somewhat hard to believe that we're already talking about Windows 8 given that Windows 7 just hit the shelves two months ago, but you know the engineers at Microsoft are already planning ahead. According to a roadmap constructed over at Microsoft Kitchen -- based around whispers heard through the grapevine on the eventual release of the next Windows Server -- the next iteration of Windows is tentatively pegged for release in the year 2012. Of course, a three-year window between Windows 7 and the next version is totally believable, but we wouldn't go planning your end of the world party with the assumption that a new OS will be the main attraction. Or you could, but then you might be disappointed, which would be a sucky way to go out.