If I seem quiet here lately, it’s because I’ve been very busy preparing for this week’s launch of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
As a teaser, let me share this extremely unofficial, community-generated DVD artwork from Vlad, the proprietor of a Windows enthusiast blog in Romania.
The idea is that you can download the code after Microsoft releases it and use this artwork as a custom label when you burn the ISO to DVD. This really is a throwback—an homage, even—to the days when Windows beta testers received physical shipments of installation media, sometimes weekly.
Those days are long gone, and the role of the enthusiast beta tester has shrunk in an age of telemetry-driven design and automated test. But it’s not completely forgotten.
I saw another, similarly enthusiastic post this week at The Verge, of all places, where a forum member created a series of Zune-inspired visual mockups that made it to a front-page article and got a thumbs-up from Editor-in-Chief Joshua Topolsky.
The mockups are indeed handsome and clearly display some design talent. Chances they’ll make it into Windows 8 are nil, of course. That ship has sailed.
I used to get one of these designs, sometimes with videos and detailed explanations of the underlying design concepts, every couple months back in pre-Vista days. It’s interesting to see that enthusiasm return.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
I’m from Portugal.i’m writing and reading your article in a WP Lumia and yes I’m also very excited for the 8.Microsoft are doing a great work. Best regard.
Happy to see a fellow Romanian mentioned by Ed Bott. It is a pitty the link to his website doesn’t work. 😦