Submitted by You might have missed while being in shock and awe over our excellent review of the sam440ep and AmigaOS 4.1 (I’m joking, people), but there’s a bit of a riot going on in Microsoft blogging circles about the “RTM” date for Windows 7. A classic case of ‘air, meet heater’.
The story is like this: bloggers thought that Microsoft would announce that Windows 7 had hit “release to manufacturing” last Monday. Even though everyone more or less assumed this would indeed happen, Microsoft never confirmed any of it, and as such, this actually never left the rumour stage. Monday came and went, and Microsoft did not announce that Windows 7 had hit RTM.
Confusion all around. A lot of Windows 7 builds are leaked onto the web, and so recently Microsoft bloggers were all excited about a build with build number 7600; seeing how previous builds were stuck in the 7200 range, bloggers proclaimed the leaked 7600 build as the RTM – again, without any confirmation from Microsoft.
To counter the confusion, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc cleared up some of it, and he specifically stated that Windows 7 has not yet hit RTM. The original RTM estimation from Microsoft is the second half of July, so they’ve still got more than two weeks to hit the milestone. LeBlanc further stated all the important upcoming dates when it comes to Windows 7’s release process. He also warns against leaked builds, stating that they might contain malware, and that you really shouldn’t believe everything written on the internet. This seems like a reasonable post, right?
Well, Microsoft blogger Paul Thurrot is throwing a major fit over this RTM thing because he, well, feels neglected. I’m sorry for him and others who feel neglected, but Microsoft is following its release cycle, and Windows 7 will hit RTM when it hits RTM. Microsoft bloggers are not entitled to anything, and the originally announced milestone dates can all still be met easily.
A big bag of very, very hot air.
Shouldn’t that be “air, meet heater” instead of what you have? Or is this a saying I am not familiar with from your side of the pond?
–bornagainpenguin
EDIT: I take it by the change in summary this actually was a case of homophone confusion then?
Edited 2009-07-14 21:36 UTC
Another example where geeks—for all their intelligence—show they understand nothing.
I think I’m going to go blog about how angry I am that Apple haven’t released a quantum processor powered Internet tablet yet, despite all the rumours saying it should be out by now.
Paul Thurrot needs to get a life. He’s throwing a temper tantrum because Microsoft is confusing him?
Sorry, what a loser.
Paul Thurrot is writing a book called “windows 7 secrets” or something. It is in his best interest if the RTM is finalized early to give him time to finalize his book and hopefully publish it soon after win7 becomes available to the general public.
this is why he follows closely all windows7 builds and gets annoyed when thing change because those changes forces him to revisit portions of his book.
his frustration at the lack of RTM is understandable
I looked at the Windows 7 Secrets book link on his site, which has article which makes me laugh.
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/05/09/win…
“Microsoft refers to its HomeGroup sharing feature in two different ways, as Homegroup and HomeGroup. This is annoying”
This too annoys him?
I sure as hell wouldn’t buy his books.
What, exactly, changed? He’s annoyed because reality isn’t like the blogosphere expected it to be? So, MSFT was supposed to make Win7 RTM last monday just because the bloggers expected it to be on that date? Sure!
The most annoying part is that, if MSFT rushes the development and releases an unfinished OS Paul Thurrot, among other bloggers, will be there to bitch on day zero.
The RTM date is set: it’s two weeks from now, and that’s it.
Regarding Paul Thurrot, his book and his apparent ‘understandable frustration’. Firstly Microsoft has absolutely no obligation to bend over backwards and accommodate Paul Thurrot’s ventures into publishing and quite frankly his ‘frustration’ speaks more about wanting to make money off another organisations hard work than doing anything substantial beyond ‘secrets’ books.
Secondly, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of reading his past ‘Windows secrets’ books which amount to little more than waving a dead chicken above a laptop followed by some sips of snake oil. The books he writes have all the credibility of the tweaks one sees in fanboy orientated websites where people claim if you do xyz it’ll increase the ‘speed’ (what they define as ‘speed’ is an interesting discussion requiring a dedicated time slot of its own) of their computer.
Thirdly, anyone with half a brain wouldn’t be wasting their time with such crap begin with – if you’re interested in learning the internals of Windows then hop over to the MSDN Channel 9 video website, if you believe that you can ‘squeeze’ some performance out of Windows by thinking you’ve uncovered some ‘secret treasure trove’ of registry settings then you’re paranoid enough to believe that ‘the man’ is trying to screw you over by limiting your computer performance.
Edited 2009-07-15 02:20 UTC
I totally agree. Why is this guy still using Windows?
Years ago when I still used Windows, I was complaining endlessly. I was considered a Microsoft hater and someone jealous of Bill Gates (neither of which were true, I’ll clarify below).
Yet what I discovered after ditching XP entirely, was that soon enough, I did not care anymore. If people want to use Windows, that’s fine. But I prefer the Unix hierarchy (BeOS, Mac OS).
As for my sentiments toward Microsoft; I do not think it is an *evil* company. Yes, I strongly disapprove of some actions against competitors and I do think the punitive measures by the EU are just. That is just a sense of moral. But I do also think that particular Microsoft divisions are doing a wonderful job (Business Intelligence in the way they approach customers, the Office design department in thinking outside the box when it comes to interface ergonomics).
You should read Paul before the release of SP1, I swear it was as though it was on a campaign to run Windows Vista so low so then he could turn around and praise it to high heavens when SP1 is released by claiming perfection has been reached.
This has been a cycle ever since he appeared on the internet; its almost like a cyclical wave pattern – and it is perfect for those who have a short attentions span because it gives the illusion of impartiality when reality he is little more than a very sad and pathetic man deluded by his own love affair with a faceless multinational.
There are better alternatives to Windows out there, whether you take the *BSD, Linux or Mac OS X route; there is a solution for everyone and an operating system to suite every ones taste.
I get accused of being a fanboy, being zealot, being a Bill Gates hater (I don’t know why given that I don’t know him from a bar of soap) – I like Microsoft software though, I run Office 2008 and am very happy with it. I just can’t stand Windows because it is so utterly crap. If Microsoft were just some small two bit company I could possibly cut them some slack but they’re a multibillion company so I do expect better results. Replacing the win32 subsystem with the BSD subsystem would go along way to fixing the mess along with removing the layers of cruft from the kernel for the sack of backwards compatibility.
That doesn’t make him any less of a arrogant jackass though. Who cares what he needs for his book? Not me for sure and MS has absolutely no damn obligation whatsoever to release the RTM so he can get his book out.
Paul Thurrott, in a nutshell.
OReilly released a book about Thurrott?
are like the damn idiots who pound on your door Sundays to try and sell you on Jesus Christ. They want everyone to believe what they do, no matter how hypocritical they are or sound. Avoid blogs and blogging like the plague, as they all suck. That is web 2.0…facebook, myspace, linkedin, etc.
How many of you blog? I would think the tech savy would steer clear of that crap.
A friend of mine commented to me awile back: What fits of vanity drive all these dolts to blog?
Menace to civilized society, I say. But maybe it at least keeps Carnivore occupied.
The tech savvy? That depends what you mean—especially when it comes down to creation or consumption. I blog, but then it’s usually about things I’m making that contribute to the web.
This website is a glorified blog. Thom writes his own opinion on the news instead of just copy-pasting someone else’s RSS.
I read a number of blogs from people who know their subject and can provide me with insight I would otherwise not have.
I don’t think you can tar all ‘bloggers’ with the same brush—especially when by ‘bloggers’ you actually mean pundits, critics and analysts who make up news and then expect it to happen and throw a fit when it doesn’t.
I disagree. Thom manages to retain objectivity, nor is he the sole contributor to OS News’ contents. Though he does not refrain from sometimes expressing his own views (as any regular Dutchman), if he were to bestow his opinion upon us, it would greatly diminish the role of OS News as the central source for developments in a broad variety of OSes.
Please don’t generalize. I read a lot of great technical blogs. A lot of the MSDN-blogs are very informative.
I do blog myself, although not that much lately. The posts I write that are most successful are the technical posts about programming.
I don’t know if I’d call Bruce Schneier’s blob irrelevant or ego pushing noise. Like any source of information, there are good and bad ones. The bad tend to be as obvious as the celebrity rags at the grocery checkout.
Way to go tarring all bloggers with one giant brush; I can tell you that as far as the news papers in New Zealand are concerned, if you look at some of the contributors to them – I’ve read better quality articles on amateur blogs than from so-called ‘trained journalists’. The example of crap being posted as ‘real writing’ is John Minto – life time ‘activist’ and articles that drip with emotionally rhetoric but lacking in any objective evidence to back up the claims presented.
What you sound like is person who can’t seem to differentiate between those who write quality content and those who have a blog which is nothing sort of a series of brain farts randomly through the day.
Not all blogs are useless or filled with the inane ramblings of a mouth-breathing troglodyte, you know? For example, many GNOME developers write a blog and usually blog about their experiments with some cool stuff, or how one could perhaps improve on something. Those are always a useful read. I can bet my left arm and leg that there’s several KDE developers blogging about similar and equally interesting stuff. Oh, and not to mention people who f.ex. blog about changes in political situations near them, those can equally well be a good read if they relate to IT. And so on and so forth..
And damn, I love the term “mouth-breathing troglodyte”, copied it from someone on MMO-Champion…I can’t be sure if Thurrot is one, but he sure acts like one
I’m amazed about how these little kids think someone owes them anything. They claim they MUST be able to anticipate or leak info or something. When they don’t, they cry companies don’t tell them exact information about a supposed “secret”. lol amazing!
Welcome to the world where “insiders” are mostly people blessed by companies to spread (sometimes false or not accurate) information and where bloggers get used for PR reasons. 😉
They can’t believe they can’t tell their friends to “know something secret from XxXxX” and watch their blog statistics go up. How frustrating!
Increasingly in society there is an attitude of entitlement – People seem to genuinely think they are ‘entitled’ to things without having worked for them… I supposed you could blame it in a way on the concept of ‘rights’… Oh, I have rights – yeah, keep telling yourself that – forgetting their ancestors who fought and died or even our young fighting and dying overseas so you can have the comfy soft fat life.
People have become so accustomed to having everything handed to them on a silver plate their way. The result being that any variation from their expectations is going to knee-jerk them into whiny little bitch mode.
Well wake up call – It is their product, if they don’t think it’s ready then it is not ready. If they even have the INKLING of something that makes it not ready for RTM, I’d rather have them wait then have it end up in the damned channel and then need three hours of running windows update on a fresh installation.
Thurrott – Your site has been a boon to the Windows user community for some time – but face it, you’re some nobody writing a crappy little blog on a site that is mostly built on copypasta. Your opinion means exactly two things to a company hinging it’s entire financial portfolio on the next release… and Jack left town, took his **** with him.
Lands sake – Get over yourself and your self-righteous delusions of self-importance.
Better yet, close down your Blog and see if anybody even notices!
So why do I get the feeling people WILL notice it when Thurrot closes down his blog? (& happiness will be all around)
I don’t understand the hate on people have for a blogger. If you don’t like him, don’t read him. He’s not intruding on your property, he’s not blasting out emails filled with his diatribe…
If you don’t like what he has to say or how he says it, don’t visit his advertising laden whiny blog
Well just as the blogger is entitled to his respective opinion, so is everyone else. I don’t think people “hate” this blogger, they just express their opinion on this blogger’s opinion – to which they, too, are entitled.