Microsoft Windows 7 And Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Released To Manufacturing

I have been looking forward to this news for a few days now and it’s now official. This morning Microsoft announced that Windows 7 has RTM’d.

RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM. Then, it goes though all the validation checks required for RTM including having all languages of that build completed. If all the validation checks have passed – sign-off for RTM can occur. Today after all the validation checks were met, we signed off and declared build 7600 as RTM.

To add to this great news, Microsoft also announced that Windows Server 2008 R2 has RTM’d as well.

The acronym stands for Release to Manufacturing, and it means this latest release of Windows Server 2008 R2 is now blessed by engineering as ready for the manufacturing process. We’re talking final code. Sun shining, birds singing, children dancing in the streets.

I have been running Windows 7 Release Candidate on my machines for the last few months. This includes machines at home and laptops at work. It’s been an extremely stable environment with ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS Server 9.3.1.

So the question now is when can I get my hands on Windows 7?

• Partners & OEMS
  ISV’s and IHV’s – From Microsoft Connect, MSDN and TechNet on August 6th
  Microsoft Gold/Certified Partners – From Microsoft Partner Network Portal on August 16th

• Business Customers
  Volume License Customers – From Volume License Service Centre on August 7th
• IT Professionals
  Technet Subscribers – From TechNet on August 6th 
• Developers
  MSDN Subscribers – From MSDN on August 6th
• Consumers
  General availability on Windows 7 will be October 22nd where I’m sure there will be a massive worldwide launch.

Still two weeks to wait until we get our hands on the final copy of Windows 7. I am already making plans to re-install my laptop to Windows 7 RTM. Full information on the Windows 7 RTM announcement can be found here: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/…

For Windows Server 2008 R2, there are some great new features. I didn’t get around to trying the RC version so will have a play with the final soon. Full information on the Windows Server 2008 R2 announcement along with some of the new features can be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/…

I’ll be doing an extensive test of ArcGIS 9.3.1 on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 so stay tuned for updates.