It felt like only yesterday that Windows Vista was released, it only felt like a few hours ago that Windows 7 was let out of the bag - but now we're hearing the early rumbles of Windows 8 and rumor has it, it's less than 2 years away.

We all know they're working on it - it is no surprise, but there something great about knowing it's on it's way. Microsoft said in a blog post on it's Dutch web site that Windows 8 is about two years from being on the market.

The comments were made on Sunday and were made at the end of a post celebrating Windows 7 first birthday. Microsoft is hesitant to comment on this sudden news of Windows 8 but their Server team did say last year that a major release of Windows Server was due in 2012 - and server versions usually lag a desktop release.

A leaked presentation which popped up in June suggests that the next release of Windows will include (and not just limited to), an app store similar to what we see on mobile's and Apple's new "Mac Store", improved start up times and the time it takes to resume from sleep mode, improved power efficiency and also work more closely with computer makers to better differentiate between their respective computers.

One interesting note I'll leave you with, is that Steve Ballmer has said that Windows 8 is Microsoft's "riskiest bet".

Are big changes on the way for Microsoft? Will they do figure 8's in Apple's face?

We'll have to wait and see, hopefully the world doesn't end first being that it will be released in 2012 - or is Windows 8 their riskiest bet as that is in fact, what causes the end of the world? Maybe Nostradamus torrented Windows 8 with a time machine?