If you run a Google search on the year 2012, the results vary from the lining up of planets to the supposed end of the Earth.

There are links to sites that worry us and sites that elate us.

There are links to a move called 2012 starring John Cusack. There are links to Wikipedia listing the events that will be taking place in 2012.

The Beatle’s first album will fall out of copy-right.

The Olympic Games that will be taking place in the United Kingdom in 2012.

It is surmised that there will be a pole shift, fulfilling the Biblical prophecy that East will become West and North will become South.

But in amongst all the hype about the year 2012 and the supposed disaster that it forecasts there is a tiny mention made of the fact that Microsoft will be releasing the next version of its operating system. In unimaginative Microsoft style, the next version will be called Windows 8. Currently there is no known code name for the upcoming operating system.   This follows the release cycle that Vista and Windows 7 have followed.