Windows 7 Is RTM and Ready for OEM Crapware!

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The Windows 7 team has finally signed off on Microsoft‘s newest operating system and it is RTM! What this means is that all of the appropriate teams within Microsoft have certified that it is ready to be Released To Manufactures (RTM). This means that it will now be sent to computer manufactures where they will then change it to be bloated, slow, and in general a poor experience. Once they are satisfied that it is slow enough, they will install it onto their latest and greatest computers, yet again proving that a 400 Mhz computer can still be faster than modern hardware.

Todays announcement actually came sooner than anticipated. Many sites have been trying to guess the date that it would go RTM, thankfully it has been released sooner than most people expected it to be. This will hopefully allow OEMs to do more testing, realize that they need to leave it alone, and not try to “enhance” it by installing tons of crapware. Of course this is just wishful thinking.

Over the next few days/weeks the RTM version of Windows 7 Build 7600 will make its way to Technet subscribers and those that have MSDN. Unfortunately for most users that are not beta testing the OS, they will have to wait for General Availability on October 22nd.

OEMs – July 24th
Independent hardware/software vendors – August 6th
Microsoft Partner Program Gold/Certified Members – August 16th
Microsoft Action Pack Subscribers – August 23rd
Volume License (VL) customers with an existing Software Agreement – August 7th
Volume License (VL) customers without a Software Agreement – September 1st
Technet Subscribers – August 6th
Developers with MSDN subscriptions – August 6th

One thing that makes me very happy is that Microsoft has also confirmed that they will be releasing a “Family Pack” of Windows 7 which will include 3 licenses of the operating system. This is probably going to be one of the best deals both for Microsoft and Consumers. Most people I know have 2 or more computers in their house, even non-geeks. A 3 pack will hopefully make the purchase a little easier on our wallets.

Check It Out> The Windows Blog 1, The Windows Blog 2

6 Comments

abauman

Said,

Sweet, one step closer to release. I can’t wait until the RTM copy hits the torrents so we can get a good look at the final product. I doubt it differs much from the RC but we’ll see. :)

The Geek

The biggest thing I am concerned about with the final product is the searching capabilities. Windows 7 search is pretty bad compared to Vista. As for torrents I don’t think you will have to wait more longer than August 6th with so many people getting it on that date.

Is the search really that bad? To be honest, I rarely use it so I haven’t had a chance to compare. One of the first things I do after loading my OSes is install Skylight (http://www.candylabs.com/skylight/) Give it a go, it’s 100000x better than just about anything and is highly customizable as far as search sources (you can even search Google, Wikipedia, etc.) and learns as you go along. I use it as an app launcher, all I have to do to run anything is hit the hot key, type in the first one or two letters of the program I want, then hit enter. Also, indexing is very quick and light on resources and it can do math. 0_0 If you want it for Mac you can get Quicksilver, which is actually what Skylight is based off.

Honestly when it comes to Windows Vista and searching, it is better than virtually any third-party add-in. I am going to do a post soon about alternative search options for Windows 7 and maybe you should collaborate with me on it :)

I am definitely going to have to check out Skylight too and see how they stack up. It’s just such a shame that Microsoft made search worse in Windows 7.

KalEl48

I could not agree more with this blog post. Many of Vista’s “shortcomings” is just a reflection of what OEMs do to the build that Microsoft ships to them. I have Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit installed on my desktop PC, and have not had any of the performance issues that so many people seem to complain about. Of course, my system is bloatware free…and I intend to keep it that way when I install the final build of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

The Family Pack is a long overdue offering from Microsoft, in my opinion, and could really do well if priced competitively.

I would really like to see restrictions of some sort from Microsoft to help keep OEMs from going crazy and screwing up operating systems like they did with Vista. While things have gotten better in the last year there are still many opportunities for Windows to be trashed because of an incompatible program installed by a PC manufacture. The worst part is when the applications creator has compatible version available and they install the non compatible version.

Windows 7 Is RTM and Ready for OEM Crapware!

6 Comments

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