Over the weekend an Italian blog called Windowsette published a PowerPoint slide deck that appears to detail the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, dubbed "Windows 8."
The leaked slide deck may not lead to "an engineer walks into a bar" jokes like the story of Gray Powell and the iPhone 4 prototype, but the punchline is similar: the product information was apparently released under NDA to an engineer before making its way into the hands of bloggers and other writers.
The engineer fingered in the leak is Derek Goode, who apparently works at Hewlett Packard according to a published email address and a LinkedIn profile under that name. Forbes was unable to reach Goode and a HP spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on rumors.
"Microsoft is clearly on the prowl," writes Stephen Chapman at Microsoft Kitchen. "Whether or not Derek Goode is the individual who leaked the slides directly, if it was a colleague who did it behind his back, or some other scenario."
It hasn't yet been confirmed whether the documents are real. Microsoft declined to comment to Forbes on their veracity, but veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley notes at ZDNet that the preferred code name is no longer "Windows 8" but rather "Windows v.Next" -- suggesting that the marketing documents are old, even if legitimate.
But the slides describe potential upcoming Windows features like a faster boot time and facial recognition. They also show what Todd Bishop at Techflash is calling "Mac envy" with a slide titled "How Apple does it."
If Microsoft is indeed jealous of Apple, the company can count on having at least one thing in common: an engineer who apparently has trouble keeping secrets to himself. found at Forbes
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