RSSIt's done: Windows 7 releases to manufacturing
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published July 22, 2009, 5:07 PM
The final validation checks for build 7600 of Microsoft Windows 7 were met today, reports Microsoft blogger/evangelist Brandon LeBlanc. Yesterday may have been the day that the marketing team was planning for release to manufacturing (RTM), since the text of Microsoft's code rollout announcement went live anyway about 24 hours ago.
This officially means that the development of the latest installment in the sixth generation of Microsoft's Windows operating system (the first installment having been Vista) has now concluded.
"The RTM code will be delivered to our partners within the next few days who will then start preparing to deliver some amazing new products timed to hit at General Availability (GA) of Windows 7 on October 22nd," LeBlanc wrote this afternoon.
Along with today's announcement, the cover has been lifted on the company's Win7 partner Web site, "Ready-Set-7." There, new and prospective partners are encouraged to sign onto Microsoft's logo program, "Compatible with Windows 7," which appears to be far simpler and hopefully less confusing than the three-tier arrangement, which remains the topic of lawsuits.
Phusion-The build doing the rounds is 16385,but the rumour that 16386 was the final has been squashed by this news from M/S.
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|Finally the OS that will rule has be released :)
Snow Leopard aka OS that will soon die will be killed by 7. That's cool
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|*been
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|Don't be so sure. Even if the OS is good, no one can tell if it will rule, especially against Windows XP which is still dominant at 60%+.
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|I think XP is going to go the way of Windows 98 once 7 comes out. This OS is truly the most stable OS they have released to date. Much more stable than XP and Vista IMO.
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|I doubt that OS X will be killed (or even hurt) by Windows 7. I am currently running the Windows 7 release candidate in a virtual machine under OS X. It does seem to be a much better product than the previous offerings. I am excited to get a chance to work with it.
The one concern I have is the upgrade path from XP. It appears that the only option being offered is a clean install. I am running XP x64 in another virtual machine under OS X as my primary Windows platform. I have a large number of applications installed along with many updates. The amount of work involved in a clean install is more than I want to face. Your data can be off-loaded to another hard drive and preserved but the applications must be reinstalled. I believe Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal just wrote an article on this state of affairs. He has also indicated that Windows 7 is excellent except for this mess. The problem will be encountered by anyone with a relatively new machine (suitable for Windows 7) who has avoided Vista. They will get punished. Running Windows under OS X in a virtual machine does give me an advantage. I can gradually transfer programs one at a time over a considerable period of time and continue to use both environments until the process is completed. It is still a major pain. Native OS X applications for all of my needs can't come too soon for me.
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|Can't wait - only a week for MSDN! :D
Be good to finally move all my PCs to Windows 7. Here's to hoping the Media Centre bugs are all sorted - it's the only reason I couldn't run the RC on my HTPC. Other than that, Windows 7 is probably Microsoft's best product since WHS. It's certainly more cooked than Vista or XP were at launch (for those that don't remember XP RTM: it was freakin' terrible.)
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|LOL. What a bunch of lames. Don't settle for a Mac rip, get the real thing.
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|Guys please forgive me because I am a SOB and MOFO :)
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|Hey, if you don't need a powerhouse, don't get a Mac. If you do, get one.
On a budget? Get a Windows PC.
Want power, performance and reliability? Get a Mac and put Windows 7 on it.
I am internetworld7, and I approve this comment.
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|7600.16385.090713-1255 is the final build code as confirmed by Microsoft's own Steven Sinofsky who announced "today after all the validation checks were met, we signed off and declared build 7600.16385 as RTM."
The build was created earlier this month but had not been validated and tested in time for the 13th when it was expected that the RTM was to be announced.
Instead Microsoft chose to make the announcement at their employee conference in Atlanta, Georgia known as the 'Microsoft Global Exchange' (MGX) which is an internal Microsoft conference for Microsoft's global sales teams and evangelists.
Employees have been 'twittering' frantically about the announcement also which they would not do falsely unless they want to get the boot!
So the product is ready, OEMs could potentially have it by Friday (July 24th) to start their own build development with the final release, Technet\MSDN subscribers should see the download available from August 6th and everyone else will see the product when it goes on general sale October 22nd.
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|Here's the question: Is this 7600 build the same build floating around the net, or have they made changes since then?
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|"The RTM build is 7600, but it is not the same one that leaked less than two weeks ago (7600.16384)."
...according to Ars Technica.
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|So build 7600 is RTM?
Gah....
Ah well. I suppose it's still better than XP on my old laptop... Wonder if they'll work any code in there yet to defeat the activation hacks already out there for 7600....
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|dosnt matter if they kill the software hacks, the bios mods will still work, ms cant afford to alienate OEM's by trying to block slic based activations.
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|Dunno. Heard rumors they were changing it ever so slightly. Not sure how. Probably only enough to make the hackers work a few weeks to get it working again though. (They'd still be done before GA...)
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|Don't you mean a few extra seconds....? [smiles]
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|Possibly... :p
(I see fathead's been through here spam-modding. How cute.) ;)
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|A nonhackable Windows activation would be Microsoft's worst nightmare. There would be huge s***s in developing markets, and the meoment that is where the growth potentioal is.
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|MS latest incarnation seems well on its way now, so long Vista, it was good while you lasted but alas, you were born premature
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