Windows 7 Release Candidate this May, Windows 8 in the Works
The next milestone in the development of Windows 7 will be Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), which according to Microsoft will be released to the general public on the 5th of May, 2009. As Windows 7 GA (General Availability) is slowly but surely becoming a reality, Microsoft is already working on the next iteration of the Windows-based OS, mainly Windows 8 – which will reportedly see the light of day in 2012.
Starting with Windows 7 RC, here is the official message delivered by Microsoft to its partners, message in which we see a clear release date for Win7 RC (for the general public):
“We are pleased to announce that Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is available. Windows 7 RC is the prerelease version of Windows 7. Since this is not the final release, your PC will gather and send information to Microsoft engineers to help them check the fixes and changes made based on testing of Windows 7 Beta.
Test-drive Windows 7 RC today to see for yourself—and to show your colleagues and customers—how Windows 7 delivers improved management, security, reliability, and performance.
Download Windows 7 RC
Partners: If you have a subscription to MSDN or TechNet, you can download Windows 7 RC now. Otherwise, you can download Windows 7 RC starting May 5, 2009.”
As always, developers and Microsoft partners will be the first to get the bits of Windows 7, but Windows 7 RC public availability is following closely.
Moving on, it seems that the Redmond-based software developer is already considering its next move – developing and releasing Windows 8. The information has come to light courtesy of two job postings: one asking developers to join the Microsoft team in order to work on the “innovative features” of Windows 8 (details here), and a second that focuses on Windows 8 Server (details here).
Starting with Windows 7 RC, here is the official message delivered by Microsoft to its partners, message in which we see a clear release date for Win7 RC (for the general public):
“We are pleased to announce that Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is available. Windows 7 RC is the prerelease version of Windows 7. Since this is not the final release, your PC will gather and send information to Microsoft engineers to help them check the fixes and changes made based on testing of Windows 7 Beta.
Test-drive Windows 7 RC today to see for yourself—and to show your colleagues and customers—how Windows 7 delivers improved management, security, reliability, and performance.
Download Windows 7 RC
Partners: If you have a subscription to MSDN or TechNet, you can download Windows 7 RC now. Otherwise, you can download Windows 7 RC starting May 5, 2009.”
As always, developers and Microsoft partners will be the first to get the bits of Windows 7, but Windows 7 RC public availability is following closely.
Moving on, it seems that the Redmond-based software developer is already considering its next move – developing and releasing Windows 8. The information has come to light courtesy of two job postings: one asking developers to join the Microsoft team in order to work on the “innovative features” of Windows 8 (details here), and a second that focuses on Windows 8 Server (details here).
