Microsoft Clears up Windows 7 RTM “Confusion”

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.

26 Comments

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