We already knew the Windows 7 Release Candidate would arrive somewhere in May, but we now also have a release date thanks to a “slip-up” (you’re not fooling anyone, Microsoft) on the Microsoft Partner Program website: Windows 7 RC will be released on May 5. Just so you know.
That there was only one public beta and will be only one public rc?
I know you can download leaked builds, possibly even intentionally leaked by Microsoft, but that’s not the point. If there are issues with this one public rc, and you don’t want to go download leaked builds to see how it is progressing, you’d better hope MS fixes the issue in the rtm build. No real chance to monitor how progress is going.
At least, that’s how I feel about it.
ya its a shame MS isn’t keeping people up to date about the progress of Win7… oh wait http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/
anyways, the underlying driver structure and lots of other stuff is vista compatible meaning the OEMs, driver makers, software programmers, etc arn’t going to have that hard a time, trust me i know. The polish on 7 is way! past any release to date that wasn’t simple a second edition style release (no this is not Vista SE people).
ever recomplie (with the excpetion of one that threw back all sorts of build errors for me) has gotten better and better. I am not bothered in the least, this is the one that MS has put the most effort into on making it quality. They have to much riding on this to screw it up, even a little.
It’s not about MS keeping us informed, it’s about letting the public test it. If they want public beta testers, they should keep those testers up to date with new os builds.
Otherwise, we’re basically forced to take MS’s word for everything… and I’ll probably get flamed for saying this, but I don’t particularly trust words from the MS marketing machine. If they weren’t serious about public testing, they should never have even opened it.
…I am guessing your new to windows
Been testing it since the public beta and have to say I’m impressed for a MS OS. I hope all who have test builds or what ever are using the opportunity to submit error reports where necessary.
Yes, MS = evil corporation but their OS is the predominant desktop OS and you can contribute to try and make it a reasonable experience for the majority of users who rely on it.
I’d do the same for Apple if they would give a chance and I have done so for Linux.
Still waiting for a Beta of Haiku to make a contribution there. Running off the hard drive and not via a VM.
You are asking people to give of their free time to improve a closed-source product that many people in the developing world will never be able to afford.
If Microsoft wants beta testers, it should pay for them. It used to do so and it fits better with it development model.
No one should get a free ride on open source. I will be happy to free test a Microsoft OS when it is released under an OSI license.
Some people find it fun or entertaining. The press finds it exciting as well. Producers of software that runs on Windows would find it valuable and IT staff who support it get some benefit out of having bugs fixed and their needs met.
If you don’t want to beta-test a Microsoft OS, you certainly don’t have to. No one is forcing you.
Beta testers have never been paid, and I think you completely misunderstand the reason behind participating in a beta test.
To me it feels stable, but clunky in areas. It’s great in comparison to Vista, but that goes without saying and isn’t really all that high praise when you think about how bad Vista could be.
Sometimes I wonder if Windows 7 would have received so much praise had it been the version to follow XP rather than Vista. No, I’m not trying to bash Win 7 here, it’s an honest question. Sometimes a product is praised simply because it is better than the one that preceeded it, and there’s no doubt Win 7 is better than Vista. But had Win 7 been the immediate successor to XP, would accolades be flying left and right from the media and from users?
I guess I’m one of the few users who isn’t as impressed as everyone else seems to be. I don’t find it a bad system, but it’s hard to get excited about Windows Vista sp2 when, this time, you’ll have to pay for it. Yes, that is how I see Windows 7 at this point, Vista sp2.
Let’s be a bit more generous and call it “Windows Vista Second Edition”. Microsoft even admit as much by assigning it version number 6.1 rather than 7.0.