Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft bigwig Bob Muglia told an audience at the Worldwide Partner Conference that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 “will RTM together in the coming few days.” That’s consistent with every single official and unofficial message I’m hearing from Redmond. Sometime in the second half of July, which starts in a few days.
Brandon LeBlanc has an excellent update at the Windows Team Blog, including this welcome news:
MSDN & TechNet Subscribers […] will be able to download the final version of Windows 7 a few weeks after we announce RTM.
[…]
MSDN and TechNet subscribers, as well as Volume License customers will have access to product keys (PIDs) when Windows 7 is made available to them. Product keys for Windows 7 RTM will be different than the product keys used for Windows 7 Beta and the release candidate. Windows 7 Beta or RC product keys *will not* work with Windows 7 RTM.
If your job involves Windows, you should have a TechNet subscription. If you’re a Windows developer, you should have an MSDN subscription.
Meanwhile, the transcript of Bill Veghte’s keynote from WPC yesterday gave me a brief start this morning. I practically did a spit take when I read the opening sentences and saw this: “This morning we will release Windows 7 to manufacturing.”
How could I have missed that? Answer: I didn’t. I watched the video replay of Veghte’s remarks and heard what he really said:
This month we will release Windows 7 to manufacturing.
“Oh,” as Emily Litella might have said. “That’s different.”
Moral of the story: Don’t believe everything you read.
For another example of why that advice is so important, check out my report at ZDNet on how our elite technical press totally botched a big story yesterday:
The echo chamber misreads another Windows 7 survey
Adding: In the comments, Krystalo notes that Emil Protalinski at Ars Technica flagged this late last night in an update to a post from earlier in the day. The Ars update gets it wrong, in my opinion, by concluding, “It looks like someone sent out an old draft copy of a transcript for the keynote…” The implication, of course, is that Veghte was supposed to make the announcement but it was delayed at the last minute and Microsoft forgot to make the necessary edit. If you follow the link I provide above, however, it’s pretty clear that this is in fact a transcript (you think all of the Q&A was that scripted?), prepared after the fact by a professional transcribing service that got one word wrong. Early in my professional career I edited transcripts of interviews for a university; I know how easy it is to get a word or two wrong.
Update 14-July 11AM Pacific: The transcript has now been corrected and this note added to the top: “Editor’s note – July 14, 2009 – Bill Veghte’s remarks have been updated to correct Windows 7 release to manufacturing timing information due to a transcription error.”
Ed Bott 
Ed wrote, “Moral of the story: Don’t believe everything you read.”
Does that mean we shouldn’t believe everything we read here? 😉
Absolutely right. 😉
That’s why I always give my sources and “show my work” so people can look at the same evidence and decide for themselves whether my conclusions are valid.
Ars noted Microsoft’s screwup in the transcript yesterday: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/07/microsoft-windows-7-hasnt-hit-rtm-yet.ars
Ed
Microsoft clearly could be handling this better. Its not just the final release date for RTM but there are other things such as no pre-order of Windows 7 available in countries such as Australia, no hint of a discount for people who purchased Windows Vista Ultimate then got left hanging in the wind when the Ultimate extra’s never materialised. I certainly don’t believe everything I read and take such things with a grain of salt.
I am not proud to say this, but most of the home users in India use pirated Windows XP in their PCs. If there is any other way to kill piracy in India, Windows 7 should be given at discounted price in India. If you consider the amount of population India has and if 90% of the pirated s/w users purchase the OS, then MS would be gaining and not loosing.
I have not doubt that MS screwed the release of Windows 7 with their mindless pricing. This is a fantastic product but the sales and marketing people don’t seem to get the final act right.
how come you never mention us partners and the action pack subscription? all i ever see is technet and msdn. technte is for testing and you can’t use it to develop apps. but you can with the action pack subscription.
Gary, you actually have to be in the business of selling hardware or services based on Microsoft products to qualify for Action Pack. Anyone can register for a TechNet or MSDN subscription:
“The Microsoft Partner Program is designed for businesses whose primary function is to sell, service, support, or build solutions on the Microsoft platform, or to provide solutions based on Microsoft products and technologies to independent third-party customers. Examples of qualifying businesses are: consulting services providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), independent hardware vendors, large account resellers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), support providers, system integrators, system builders, training providers, value-added resellers, and value-added providers…”
Action Pack is a great deal, but I’d bet that fewer than 5% of my readers actually legitimately qualify for it.
In the countries like China and India, it makes even more sense to sell the discounted version. At least Microsoft is gonna get SOMETHING out of it! Otherwise, people of these countries will resort to piracy, will use Ubuntu, or will not upgrade from XP! I say so because I was desperately waiting for this, but when I found out India is not eligible for this, I decided I won’t be upgrading to Windows 7. I will continue using Vista and XP (2 systems). There you go Microsoft. You lost $50 straight, when all you needed to do was to take my money and allow me to download from your website. How much would that cost you? $2? Net loss of $48 then, I guess.