It looks like we're going to get what everyone's been waiting to get their hands on earlier than expected. A badly timed blog post (now deleted) today on the Windows Hardware and Driver Developer Blog pinned the release date of the next preview of Windows for May 31st.

The post was written by Chuck Chan, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Development team on a new blog called the "Windows Hardware and Driver Developer Blog" this morning. He says that the "Release Preview" has been "made available today" and then signs the date and his name at the end of the post as "Chuck Chan, May 31st."

If you're looking for conclusive evidence that Windows 8 will be in everyone's hands tomorrow, this is it. The blog post was removed just two minutes after it was published and the blog remains empty for now. Whilst the links provided in the post currently point to the Consumer Preview, they will update tomorrow when Microsoft makes the actual announcement. You can read the full text of the post before it was yanked below.

Windows 8 Release Preview: Download here (not active until May 31st)

Windows 8 Driver Kit: Download here (not active until May 31st)

Visual Studio 2012 Professional: Download here (not active until May 31st)

Update: Our internal sources have confirmed that the blog post is accurate, and that the links will become live tomorrow for the public to download the updated files. There is no announcement planned other than posts on the various Microsoft blogs. The full text of the blog post is available on the next page, and some leaked screenshots are available here.