Read original post at Pete Brown's Blog
Today we released the Windows 8 Release Preview (RP)! I haven't been this excited about an operating system since Windows 95 first came out, when there was no such thing as downloading an OS, and we had to actually wait in line in a store to get our blue cloud box full of floppies (or was it a CD? I forget).
Windows 95 was a big deal for users and developers alike. It had a brand new interface, and a new set of programming APIs, common controls (3d beveled gray the norm!), navigation patterns and more. For most developers, this was their first taste of a 32 bit operating system, and the first taste of the Win32 API. That stuff's all old hat now, but it was new and exciting at the time.