Topic: Software

Windows 7 RTM - Get the facts

Summary: My mailbag is brimming with emails relating to Windows 7 going RTM ... Here's what we know.

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for Hardware 2.0 | July 22, 2009 -- 03:19 GMT (20:19 PDT)

Follow @the_pc_doc

My mailbag is brimming with emails relating to Windows 7 going RTM.

Here's what we know:

We now have two major release dates: August 6th and October 22nd.
TechNet/MSDN subscribers will be able to download the English language version of Windows 7 RTM on August 6th, other languages will be available by October 1st.
General availability (GA) for consumers will be on October 22nd.
Microsoft Partner Program Gold/Certified Members will be able to get the English language RTM via the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal on August 16th. Other languages to be available by October 1st.
Microsoft Action Pack will see the English language RTM by August 23rd, and remaining languages by October 1st.
Volume License (VL) customer already with a existing Software Assurance (SA) license will be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English starting August 7th through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC). Other languages will go online within a couple of weeks.
Volume License customers without an existing SA license will have to wait until September 1st.
OEMs will start seeing RTM images about two days after the RTM code is finalized, so that could be by the end of the week.

Other FAQs:

Q: Do beta testers get a free copy? A: Nope. Apparently that 50% off pre-order deal was aimed at you.
Q: When will the RTM code be finalized? A: I'm not told that will happen today (Wednesday, July 22nd).
Q: Wasn't it supposed to RTM last week? A: There were rumors and speculation to that end, but it didn't happen.
Q: Any ideas why? A: I'm told that RTM was held up by the need to fix a number of little things.
Q: How different will RTM be compared to the RC release? A: Visually, not very different at all. The tweaks and fixes will be mostly under the hood.
Q: Can I stay with the RC release for now? A: Yes. Windows 7 RC doesn't expire until June 1st, 2010, but it starts that reboot every two hours thing on March 1st, 2010 so you might want to plan to be off it by then.

Any other questions? Pop them in the TalkBack area!

Topics: Software, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Windows

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

20 comments

Log in or register to join the discussion

RE: Windows 7 RTM - Get the facts

Actually Unbutnu is pretty much CMD free at this point, it's very very GUI... however it suffers from what all Linux suffers from now...

Lack of compatibility. You can buy WINE and that will run stuff in Win2k mode, but it doesn't help the Vista/7 people out at all... Ironically though if you're using Windows XP and want to switch to another OS, Ubuntu may be the way to go if you're on a low budget...

Honestly though from using Win 7 I can say it's running great, not very annoying, easy to figure out (I like the "/User" folder)

zithero@...
22 July, 2009 05:17

Reply Vote
Box huggers and COBOL programmers

It's amusing to watch the religious OS debate here on ZDNet. Two open government conferences I've attended in the past two weeks illustrate that even the federal government (with DOD in the lead) is beginning - creakingly - to move on from the era of the fat client. As the DOD Deputy CIO puts it, the desktop moves to the cloud; these big desktops, with attendant excessive sustainment and security issues, become a thing of the past.

DNI - Director of National Intelligence - and the intelligence community are phasing out their existing desktops on a life cycle replacement basis with Linux-based thin clients, and this is just the first step toward a full devolution of their desktops.

Windows, Linux, Mac OS - these are not the future; think of the iPhone and the apps store as the model. But just as there is still a place for COBOL programmers, the box huggers that want all their software and data at their feet (can I offer you some boxes of punched cards?) can sustain their careers for some time in the future, but will find themselves increasingly divorced from the mainstream. If, like myself, your remaining productive years are limited, you can likely ignore the game-changing trends. But if you want to be a leader in the coming years, mend your religious ways.

Not exactly my 2-cents worth; I'm merely reporting.

http://www.ndu.edu/irmc/ilss/index.html
http://www.opengovinnovations.com/

IT_User
22 July, 2009 05:53

Reply Vote
- I have heard about the death of the PC for years..
  
  Its still as strong as ever. People are excited about the cloud, wait until there is a natural disaster and no one in a area can access the cloud and see how that goes over. With a standalone there is still much you can do. I think thin-clients are excellent and they have their place but I just dont see a full migration over to them. Thats just my $.02.
  
  NoThomas
  22 July, 2009 06:13
  
  Reply Vote
  - We also heard about the PC for years
    
    Although it wasn't called a PC. TI's failure was the "Home Computer" if I recall, and there were various other fizzled ventures until IBM hit the right combination of technology and name recognition to cause the takeoff.
    
    A man on the moon, transcontinental railroad and numerous other events were heard about for years, and if this is sufficient for you to ignore it, so be it. Technology, culture, national events (like the end of the Civil War) etc had to align, as information technology is now aligning.
    
    So what would a natural disaster do to the cloud that it wouldn't do to existing data centers? Actually, the cloud has far more redundancy and reprovisioning capability than the traditional architecture, which to my mind it should be more disaster resistant than what we have known until now.
    
    Sure the standalone can do much. Just visit any office where the net is down. You wait for it to come back. To resurrect an old saying from the dawn of the microcomputer era - all computers wait at the same speed.
    
    IT_User
    22 July, 2009 07:03
    
    Reply Vote
    - Not what I meant..
      
      "So what would a natural disaster do to the cloud that it wouldn't do to existing data centers? Actually, the cloud has far more redundancy and reprovisioning capability than the traditional architecture, which to my mind it should be more disaster resistant than what we have known until now." The could does have more redundancy, I meant being able to access the cloud. I live where hurricane Ike hit full on, when I got my power back I could, still get documents and write more documents, I could check my back account (Quicken), I could edit videos, I could play games, I could capture video, I could type email (couldn't send but I could type them). I couldnt access the cloud because my ISP was down. All of those clould applications would of been useless to me, which is my point. If we move totally to a cloud enviroment and you are unable to access the cloud then what would you do? I know some are working on offline clients which is good but really isnt that kinda the same thing we have now?? Thin-clients are great and for some applications they are perfect but they are not perfect for all situations which is why I dont think we will see the end of PC's.
      
      NoThomas
      22 July, 2009 07:22
      
      Reply Vote
      - Would you buy the end of dominance?
        
        Certainly there will remain a core of folks that actually retain value from standalones. I have colleagues who maintain servers in their homes. But they are not the majority. What I am seeing the rapidly-developing trend in the enterprise is away from the heavy client on every desktop, and I think the average home user will not be far behind. My own desktop went from a steady accumulation of software in bulletin board days to the point that I do almost everything through the web. Hard crash of my motherboard last week took only a few hours to recover, because there's just not much here anymore.
        
        One recent exception - my new GolfLogix GPS requires download of a client that requires either Windows or MAC. So the break isn't yet clean.
        
        But for the most part, it is senseless to war over desktop OSs - a bit like the Greek city states squabbling among themselves with Rome looming over the horizon.
        
        IT_User
        22 July, 2009 07:44
        
        Reply Vote
      - Maybe...
        
        I will go as far as to say as much dominance as it has now, moving towards the cloud is a good thing as long as its not your only thing and you dont rely on it a 100%.
        
        NoThomas
        22 July, 2009 08:13
        
        Reply Vote
- Box huggers and COBOL programmers
  
  Amazingly enough the farther we get in
  computing the more we circle around to stuff we
  did back in the 80's. Back then, mainframes
  with thin client terminals, then fat clients
  with emulators, then fat clients with
  everything on them, then fat clients with VM,
  then thin clients with the "cloud". Everything
  depends on where you store your info and where
  you run your apps. It is hard enough to get
  people to back up their data these days that we
  have to put automatic backups into the
  operating system (Win7). As I tell my
  customers, applications and operating systems
  can be reloaded, data cannot.
  
  Just like the AMD vs Intel/ATI vs Nvidia you
  have the Windows vs Linux vs Mac. You can't
  please everyone and everyone thinks their
  system is better than the other.
  
  PC's are not going anywhere and just like
  things like VoIP phones,depends on your
  connection and power. When the lights go out,
  all of this is a moot point.
  
  techhund
  22 July, 2009 07:14
  
  Reply Vote
they wanne a group with a hit in the charts

basically it's not that what biznizz people want...they wanne a group with a hit in the charts..not some toy to plauder with...they want the real maccoy, whoops

amj2010
22 July, 2009 06:21

Reply Vote
RE: Windows 7 RTM - Get the facts

Does the author read what he writes? Spell check can't find these errors.

First item:
We know have two major...

Should be: We NOW have two major....

FAQ 2 answer
I?m not told that will happen .....

Should be: I?m NOW told that will happen....

Sure does look like Adrian can't handle the word now. :-)

TrueDinosaur
22 July, 2009 06:31

Reply Vote
- Its and it's
  
  Maybe he used the same system that so many posters here use to interchange the possessive and the contraction.
  
  IT_User
  22 July, 2009 07:58
  
  Reply Vote
so what to make of Windows 7 7600.16384.090710-1945

Adrian

Couple weeks back you said your contacts said this was the real RTM. Now we know it isn't.

Why is Microsoft so tight lip on this?

Randalllind
22 July, 2009 09:35

Reply Vote
"I?m not told that will happen today"

Q: When will the RTM code be finalized?
A: I?m not told that will happen today (Wednesday, July 22nd).

Nope, ain't gonna happen on July 22nd!
Circle the 24th on your ZDNet calender.

cnfrisch
22 July, 2009 12:35

Reply Vote
Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing!!!

Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing!!!
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/22/windows-7-has-been-released-to-manufacturing.aspx

cnfrisch
22 July, 2009 14:20

Reply Vote
RE: Windows 7 RTM - Get the facts

Will we be able to upgrade from the RC to the RTM,
or need to do a clean install?

edtoff
22 July, 2009 15:10

Reply Vote
RE: Windows 7 RTM - Get the facts

Adrian -

It's now, not know.

"We know have two major release dates: August 6th and October 22nd."

fitz@...
22 July, 2009 17:32

Reply Vote
- ok....
  
  Look, I've read many of Adrian's blog posts. They generally contain at least 3 or 4 spelling or grammatical errors. Ya know what? Big Deal. Everyone makes mistakes. Sure it would be easier to read if they weren't there, but I'm fairly sure 99% of the people who read it know exactly what he meant.
  
  Badgered
  23 July, 2009 05:55
  
  Reply Vote
What's with that?

I talked to both of my distributors, as an OEM I should have access to the RTM by the end of the week, but both distributors say the MS rep told them not until December. What's with that? Are they only RTMing to the tier 0ne manufacturers?

Vgeek
23 July, 2009 09:06

Reply Vote
[b]Q:[/b] Can I stay with Windows XP for now?

[b]Q:[/b] Can I stay with Windows XP for now? - 7/22/2009
[b]A:[/b] Yes you can. There's no compelling reason to make a switch to W7 even though we want you to spend the money.

=========================

[b]Or, Consider the alternatives.

Ubuntu 9.04 makes small demands of your existing hardware and will run just fine in 512MB RAM and uses as little as 2GB disk space.

Ubuntu cost: $0.00

Read how <a href="http://www.flexense.com/resources/file_systems_performance_comparison.html">Ubuntu 9.04 mops the floor with Windows 7</a>--and in this benchmarks series, even Windows XP is faster than W7!--now isn't that a hoot?![/b]

Release the hounds! :)

Thank you very much for reading an alternative viewpoint.

Dietrich T. Schmitz
25 July, 2009 07:18

Reply Vote
RE: Windows 7 RTM - Get the facts

Will I be able to "upgrade" the RC version to the RTM version or am I in for a completely clean install ...

girish.malkan@...
27 July, 2009 02:55

Reply Vote