Microsoft only recently launched Windows 7 and the new OS is doing well on the market. Many consumers are buying new machines with the OS and analysts expect enterprise customers to upgrade in a big way in 2010.

Windows 7 may be only fresh to the market, but Microsoft is already working on its replacement with Windows 8 set to hit in 2012 according to a leaked roadmap slide. The slide also shows that Microsoft views Windows 7 as a release update.

Windows 8 on the other hand is noted as a major release. I wonder if that means that Windows 8 will get more new code or completely break away from what Microsoft has done with Windows 7. We have about three years before we find out for sure.