Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Will the Windows 7 RTM make an early entrance?

The official release of Beta 1 of Windows 7 to the public is widely expected to occur next week. If all goes well with the remaining testing, indications are that the final, RTM (released to manufacturing) version will be available as early as August. Lending support to this theory is the fact that the end-user license agreement of Beta 1, like all recent prerelease versions of Windows 7, states that the software will expire Aug. 1, 2009.

This feature — as well as the use of the product's built-in slmgr -rearm command to extend the beta's trial period without an activation key — was recently explained by Marius Oiaga of Softpedia. Other sources predict that Windows 7 won't ship to OEMs until October 2009, becoming available to end users the following month.

Early reviews of the Windows 7 beta, such as those summarized by the Telegraph of London, variously describe the new operating system as being not much different from Vista or representing an unspectacular-but-solid improvement. If Windows 7 turns out to have better performance and reliability than Vista, as some reviewers believe, the OS may gain a measure of relieved acceptance from end users after only a few months on the market.

No comments:

Post a Comment