Microsoft Top Brass Talks Windows 7 RTM

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 13 May 2009

Following the news that Windows 7 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) will be released by the end of the year, in fact in time for the holydays as Senior Vice President of Windows Business informed, two key figures in the Microsoft Corporation have come out now to talk some more about Windows 7 RTM – and by that I mean provide us with some more info about the next iteration of the Windows-based operating system.

The first thing that Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, Steven Sinofsky, and Senior Vice President, Windows Core Operating System Division, Jon DeVaan, want us to know is that the release of Windows 7 RTM is not dependant on time, but on other factors.

“RTM is not one point in time but a “process” as from RTM we enable the PC manufacturers to begin their processes of building Windows 7 images for new PCs, readying downloads for existing machines, and preparing the full supply chain to deliver Windows 7 to customers. Thus RTM is the final stage in our engineering of Windows 7, but the engineering continues from RTM until you can purchase Windows 7 and Windows 7 PCs in stores at General Availability, or GA,” said the two Senior Vice Presidents.

The other thing to keep in mind about Windows 7 RTM is that design and feature-wise, it will not differ from Windows 7 RC, which was released to the general public last week. Bugs and issues will be solved in Windows 7 RTM, but no new functionality will be added; this is something that the development team will “save for future releases”.

As a matter of fact, quality is the key element that is behind the driving force of Windows 7 RTM. “The RTM milestone is not a date, but a process. Delivering the highest quality Windows 7 is the most important criteria for us at this point—quality in every dimension. The RTM process is designed to be deliberate and maintain the overall engineering integrity of the system. Many are pushing us to release the product sooner rather than later, but our focus remains on a high quality release.”


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