sykozis :
Longhorn, used the NT6 kernel....not the NT5 kernel that Win2k/XP used. New kernel means new development. Longhorn, aka Vista, was not built off of XP at all and in fact uses a different kernel. Windows8, is being built on the NT7 kernel...making Windows8, the actual Windows ver 7.0.
What they use in the RTM is irrelevant, this is early development we are talking about. Do you think Microsoft simply pushes the DEL button on the keyboard and say "hey, let's start from scratch this time. Blank page. Delete everything old!"? No, they start with an early version and work from there. Eventually they change enough core features in the kernel to merit a version change, but until then it's more or less the same as its predecessor.
Longhorn started out with the same kernel as XP yes, so James is right. Remember also the long development process Vista had which resulted in it being scrapped and re-done with Windows Server 2003 as a base. Before LH started its development there was no "new" kernel, just the current ones.
Same thing here with Windows 8. They use Windows 7 as base and go from there. If they change the kernel enough it may very well get a new version number. Or it may not. But at the moment in Milestone 2 (as with the leak this thread is about) it's still based on Windows 7.
You're free to see for yourself, we got plenty of early Longhorn builds for you to dissect if you want. But Microsoft (as most developers) has always based their new products on old products.
Windows 95 initially based on DOS. Windows 98 based on 95. Me based on 98.
They restarted indeed with NT, but that bore fruit from a Microsoft-IBM joint project called NT OS/2, which later became Windows NT. Then it moved on, NT 3.5, 3.51, 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP. All based on the previous version. And you will see this everytime you look at an early beta or milestone build.
The Windows 8 build on BetaArchive is indeed a genuine one, even if it looks like Windows 7 with logos changed. But remember, key components these days are signed by Microsoft. If someone cut and paste bits and pieces the signature would be invalid. And there's no way to sign the files yourself since only Microsoft can do that. So if you find a library with symbols saying Windows 8, or resource files with Windows 8 references in them and it's properly signed then you better believe it's genuine
.