Windows 7 RC1 is here... almost

In Monday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches the official release of the Windows 7 release candidate be... uhh, officially released. Not to mention a phone bill for $0.00...

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Windows 7? Not this year.
• Windows 7 candidate leaks?

Gavin Clarke deals out the deets:

Stable and completed code for Windows 7 will be released to early adopters during [this] week, with mass availability planned for the following Tuesday. The eagerly awaited Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 will be posted to members of Microsoft's Developer Network and TechNet for download on April 30. RC1 will be made generally available on May 5.
...
Microsoft confirmed the dates after the RC leaked to four torrent sites, causing excitement and frustration that Microsoft didn't appear to be offering a date for release ... This is expected to be the last code cut before Windows 7 is delivered as final product.

Wolfgang Gruener fixes his 404 to add:

The company is well on its way to release the final version by late summer and provide PC vendors with the new operating system to support sales for the Christmas season.
...
Microsoft originally had said that the software would be released in 2010, but early rumors suggested that Q3 2009 has been the internal target release date from the beginning.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols checks it out on a Dell netbook:

Microsoft, in attempting to drum up excitement for Windows 7, has been leaking releases every few weeks. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Windows 7, Build 7100, which is said to be the release candidate, is now available. It can already be downloaded from most BitTorrent sites. Will you, however, want to download it if you have a netbook?
...
The CPU is fast enough, but 1GB is not enough RAM by half for Windows 7 to show well. In addition, the 945GSE graphics are really not powerful enough for Windows 7's Aero interface. You can squeeze Windows 7 easily enough even into 8GBs of disk space, but there's precious little room left for data and applications ... Build 7100 made it even clearer to me that on a real netbook, a low-end, inexpensive system, Windows 7 is simply too much operating system for these small computers.

Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc answers our frequently asked questions:

A lot of folks want to know when they can get their hands on the official RC, when we are going to RTM, and what I had for breakfast.
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On behalf of everyone here, I would to thank all of our beta testers for helping us get to this point. You guys have been busy. At the peak of the feedback cycle, we were receiving a “Send Feedback” report every 15 seconds for an entire week. Since then, the engineering team has been busy analyzing the feedback, fixing bugs, and working hard to improve the overall experience.
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And by the way, I had eggs for breakfast.

Ed Bott wonders if he should bother:

Based on my initial experience, though, I think I can solve one mystery. It’s not one of the great riddles of the ages, but I’ve been curious to know which of the 70xx builds wound up being declared the official release candidate and recompiled into build 7100. I think the answer is 7077.
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If you try to use this media to upgrade a system running the December Beta release (build 7000), you’ll be blocked unless you edit this file. You’ll also be blocked if you try to upgrade from most of the interim builds ... that found their way onto BitTorrent sites in the past few months. ... But if you’ve been running build 7077 or later, the upgrade will complete without any problems. I can’t say for sure, but that suggests to me that the underlying code is identical and that the only change is the date stamp and the build number.

But Bryant Zadegan dizagreez:

Seems a few people have been pushing around the idea that 7077 is no different from 7100. Given that 7088 was the build that was jumped to 7100 and not 7077, it means there were still 11 builds worth of changes before a build was finally signed off as the release candidate for Windows 7.
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If you’re running Windows 7 build 7077 (leaked earlier), you really do need to install 7100 if you want to give any relevant feedback. 7077 still has a few stability issues which, if reported, would be nothing more than a waste of time while being totally redundant. Granted, the build is stable, but when you’ve got a more stable build available to you, why hold back?

Paul Thurrott has one more thing. Well, actually two:

Beta testers? I'm sure they'll get it eventually. Microsoft seems to have forgotten that they exist.
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One thing we still can't discuss is the Windows Server 2008 R2 RC release. Expect news there in the days ahead as well.

And finally...

• Debt collector threat over bill for $0.00
  [hat tip: Allen Harkleroad, via Howard Price]

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Microsoft's worst third quarter ever
• Apple's netbook strategy: deny, deny, deny
• TWC's un-metered broadband is, err, metered
• ...more

Buffer overflow:

• Shark Bait: Desktops on desk tops
• Richi Jennings: BoxSentry Ditches Challenge/Response; Fights False Positives
• Hal: Viterbi search, minimum Bayes risk and laplacian eigenmaps
• Rick Jelliffe: Robots on the March
• Cloudy Times: From Push to Pull
• Ben Parr: HOW TO: Track Swine Flu Online
• Jason Kincaid: The Sorry State Of Online Privacy
• Rough Type: The unripened word
• Deal architect : Does HP need a dose of anarchy?
• ...more

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.