Windows 7 Released to BitTorrent, Manufacturing
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 23, 2009 at 4:30 AM PT
Microsoft has signed off on Windows 7. On Wednesday, the company released the final version of the operating system to manufacturers, a piece of software that it hopes will restore the engineering reputation that Vista so badly tarnished.
And by many accounts, Windows 7 is poised to do just that. Unlike Vista, it was completed on time. And unlike Vista, early reviews have been positive.
“Even in beta form, with some features incomplete or imperfect, Windows 7 is, in my view, much better than Vista, whose sluggishness, annoying nag screens, and incompatibilities have caused many users to shun it,” Walt Mossberg said of the OS back in January. “It’s also a serious competitor, in features and ease of use, for Apple’s current Leopard operating system.”
So Microsoft (MSFT) has good reason to be proud of this release-to-manufacturing, or RTM, milestone. There’s a lot riding on Windows. And the company seems to be very much on point as it brings the newest version to market.
“Today’s release is the result of hard work and collaboration with our partners in the industry to make Windows 7 a success,” wrote Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc in a post to the Windows 7 Team Blog. “We delivered Windows 7 with a predictable feature set on a predictable timetable that allowed OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] to focus on value and differentiation for their customers. We continue to be overwhelmed at the community’s response to Windows 7 and it has been an extremely rewarding experience to witness. We hope the enthusiasm will continue to grow even more as our partners build amazing experiences with their products and Windows 7.”
Ironically, this particular build of Windows 7–Build 7600.16385–which Microsoft designated as RTM, was leaked to the Internet nearly a week ago and has been available for download via BitTorrent ever since.
Comments
There’s definitely a lot of excitement around this launch. We’ve been using the Windows 7 Beta internally and have had a great experience.
So much so that this is the first time we’ve offered to install a beta OS on our products — we’ve been offering to install Windows 7 Beta for free ever since it went RC. We’ve had a lot of customers take us up on that offer. We also have been listing both the regular Vista SKUs, and the SKUs with Windows 7 upgrade coupons. Even though the old SKUs without the coupons sell for $10-20 less, we still have 70% of our customers buying the versions with the Windows 7 upgrade coupons.
Jon Bach
Posted by Jon Bach at July 23rd, 2009 at 11:51 amPuget Systems
http://www.pugetsystems.com