WINDOWS 8 BUILD 8005 COMPILED – IS WINDOWS 8 FINALLY NEARING BETA? 19:37 / Posted by Saurav ganguly /

Windows 8 Build 8005 has been compiled, with the build string: 6.2.8005.winmain.110512-1726.Notice that “win8″ is no longer seen in the build strings for Milestone 3 builds…
Earlier last week, well-known Polish rumor site CentrumXP reported that the beta phase of Windows 8 development would begin at the 8000th build. Following this rumor, Softpedia claimed that this was purely speculation, and that its sources have reported that this will “only one of the many Builds which will be created on the path to the actual Beta.” As we have seen with Windows 8, development has split into multiple branches, with different acronyms attached to the end of the build string to identify the purpose of the branch.

So what does this all mean?

• While it does seem cliché to expect Microsoft to start the beta-phase at a nice number such as 8000, looking back at history, Windows 7 Beta 1 had 7000 as its build number.

• According to an earlier leaked roadmap, if Windows 8 M3 follows the same procedure as M2, the estimate time for a finalized Milestone 3 build would be around July 2011. Looking back at Windows 7 history again, this has been the same path development has gone.
• A good point brought up by Neowin – Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference is scheduled for July 10th-14th. Microsoft may want to prepare a more polished build to demonstrate at this event. It wouldn’t be the first time they try to demo Windows 8 publicly without telling anyone.