Windows 9, codename Threshold, is rumored for an April 2015 release date. This information is known and comes from Paul Thurrott, a well-known Microsoft insider. Now, according to a new rumor, Microsoft will offer a preview version of the new operating system sometime around February of 2015. Similar to the Developer Preview or Consumer Preview of Windows 8, Microsoft is rumored to offer a public preview build of Windows 9 sometime between Q2 or Q3 of 2015 (around February or March of 2015.

This will gives  consumers a chance to play with the new operating system before it's official release. This information comes from a leaker by the name of "Faikee," who was recently responsible for dropping the Windows 365 name, along with other tidbits. 

The bigger question is what Windows 9 will bring to the table in terms of features. We would expect to see some integration of Cortana and naturally the Start menu will be present too. Expect the Modern UI to get updated as well but the degree of those changes are not clearly known at this time. 

I think there is a possibility there will be no Windows 9, instead the next version of Windows could be Windows 8.2. I have a feeling Microsoft wants to follow Mac OSX scheme of updates. I would personally actually like if Microsoft came out with Windows 8.2 and sold it for $29.00. Then again, if Microsoft left the Windows 8 name behind and released Windows 9, it would bring positive reception.

Windows 9 preview targeting a Q2 2015 release