The internet’s echo chamber has spent the last two weeks whipping itself into a frenzy over the date and build number for the Windows 7 RTM. While today’s update to the Windows Team Blog doesn’t put that speculation to rest, it does provide a timetable for the RTM’s distribution which we can use to do a little guesswork of our own.
The vole’s RTM calendar
August 6: Independent software vendors (ISVs) and Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) will have access through the MSDN or Microsoft Connect portals.
August 6: TechNet and Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers will have access through their respective TechNet or MSDN portals.
August 7: Volume licensees in the Software Assurance program will have access via the Volume License Service Center.
August 16: Microsoft Partner Program Gold and Certified members will have access via the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) portal.
August 23: Microsoft Action Pack subscribers will have access via the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) portal.
October 22: Windows 7 reaches general availability and can be purchased in the retail channel.
That pesky RTM date
The original rumor went that Windows 7 would reach its final version and receive the RTM signoff on July 13. As Microsoft revs the build string every time the dev team hits a major milestone, the July 13 appearance of build 7600.16384 — a big leap from build 726x — seemed to indicate that everything was transpiring according to design. The fact that build 7600.16834 contained no evaluation watermark and could not be activated with release candidate keys only added fuel to the fire.
So, what happened? Microsoft closed the doors on the RTM final claims, and build 7600.16385 appeared the next day. Microsoft mouthpiece Brandon LeBlanc told users that the company was sticking firm to an RTM date in the second half of july.
“We are close, but have not yet signed off on Windows 7. When we RTM you will most certainly hear it here,” he said. “As we’ve said all along, we will RTM Windows 7 when it’s ready. As previously stated, we expect Windows 7 to RTM in the 2nd half of July.”
Now that we have tipped into the second half of July with an RTM timetable, we have a better feel for when the RTM signoff might occur. We’ll even go on record and offer a prediction:
Thursday July 30, 2009
Some have said that the RTM signoff has already occurred for 7600.16385, but we remain unconvinced. Let’s see what happens, shall we? See you on August 6!
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