Windows 7 RC Download Page Points To May Release

An anonymous reader writes "Someone over at Redmond flipped the wrong switch, it would seem. Ars Technica spotted that the Windows 7 download page on TechNet had switched to say Release Candidate instead of Beta. It's now back to Beta, but not before Ars got all the details off the page: 'The public RC will apparently be coming in May 2009, and not in April as previously rumored. The RC testing program will be available at least through June 2009, and the actual build will expire June 1, 2010. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions will be available in English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish.' A screenshot and all the text on the RC download page, which was set to be published 'May 2009' is saved over at Ars."

Comments

Excellent

[Killjoy_NL]

I'm looking forward to this, new stuff to play with and if it really is faster than Vista, yay for me :)

I for one am excited about this.

[ringbarer]

Windows 7 has proven to be the most stable Windows release for a good decade. By combining the visual enhancements of Vista with a focus on performance and stability worthy of hard-iron, this OS proves once more that Microsoft are on top of their game in the desktop environment.

Although the only realistic competitor, Mac OS X, comes close in the eye-candy department; Windows 7 will have the advantage of supporting countless items of consumer hardware, as well as the tremendous decades-long back-catalog of games and productivity software.

XP has ruled the desktop market for almost a decade now. Windows 7 shall rule the next.

Re:I for one am excited about this.

[Sporkinum]

What is so earth-shatteringly better that it would be worth spending $100+ on and a chance of breaking a working system? My Vista system really is not that bad. Sure, 7 may be a bit faster and a bit more stable, but I doubt it is worth the money or the hassle.

Re:The longer the better

[xenolion]

I hope Microsoft does do more than one release candidate. I remember 2000 pro and server had two or three Release Candidates, and look how well that one went over. More time into a RC will help crush any other bugs and errors that are there. Vista seemed to be rushed now that we have sp1 for vista which made it usable but still needs a lot of work just dump vista along with its fellow friend ME.

32 bit AND 64 bit

[furby076]

So I have 32 bit laptop (vista 32) and 64 bit desktop (vista 64). Do I have to buy two upgrades or will one work?
Also, why did the parent post get marked redundant when he is first post?

Vista is that bad for general and non gamer users?

[Ilgaz]

I recently "fixed" a Sony Vaio (from .kr) which has "designed for Windows Vista" mark and serial number of Vista at its bottom. What was its problem? Someone thinking he is making a favour downgraded it to XP guaranteeing endless problems.

The machine was clearly "designed for Vista" as even the Intel disk controller was nightmare to get supported on XP. Machine's owner is a girl who only cares about office, MSN, Skype and other general stuff, not games.

When I gave up struggling to fix XP and got Vista DVD, guess what happened? It downloaded all the drivers, everything started to work fine and guess what? Damn fast. It is not a high end Vaio, it has only 1 Gig of RAM with low end hard disk (not 7200 or anything). It even has the scandal Intel i965 integrated gfx.

It seems her mistake was getting help from a Korean die hard gamer. As I had to browse Korean Sony site (don't ask how), I can understand the "XP Downgrade" is still a big deal for them so Sony was forced to pack XP "if it compiles, ship it" type drivers and offer them.

This is the second time I try to fix a virused XP (as Mac user) on a PC which was "Designed for Vista" and every problem goes away and machine runs really fast right after Vista is restored and updated. Stop this "XP downgrade" madness, at least on non gamer machines. You aren't doing a favour, you are putting the non technical types in huge risk along with the old OS you are installing. Another thing is, they paid for Vista, somehow.

Re:Vista is that bad for general and non gamer use

[digitalhermit]

Stop this "XP downgrade" madness, at least on non gamer machines. You aren't doing a favour, you are putting the non technical types in huge risk along with the old OS you are installing. Another thing is, they paid for Vista, somehow.

I downgraded my Dell XPS 1530 from Vista to XP a few months ago because of very, very bad problems with the network card disconnecting. Under XP it runs perfectly, but Vista is plagued with random disconnects that require shutting off then restarting the interface before it reconnects. Maybe it's better now, but it was the absolute best thing I did for my sanity when I replaced Vista (I did hedge my bets though and used a separate HD).

It's not like the Win95 UI is perfect

[RulerOf]

I cannot honestly say that I've actually noticed the missing status bar

You know, I prefer the look of windows without the status bar, but AFAIK it's the only UI item that keeps a running tally of how many items you have selected at a time...

With respect to the GP though, it takes an open mind to adjust from one interface to another, but I find a lot of his gripes about Vista/7 to be very backward. IMHO, my personal tell-tale of whether or not someone will be able to adapt to a new version of any software is to look at their start menu. If it resembles Windows 95 and doesn't have Computer, Documents, etc., in it, then they're going to have a problem.

Also, the breadcrumb bar... pure genius. I don't have to click "up one level" seven times to get to a specific folder, nor do I have to do so to get to any other subdirectory of a parent in my current path. Paths are also more visibly defined, as the hard arrows make better separators than "i\i" does, visually speaking.

Microsoft's UI element changes have, for the most part, been expressly for the better as far as Windows (and Office) are concerned. If you can't at the very least get used to them, then you may not have what it takes to move forward in the ever-evolving IT industry.

OTOH, I hear COBOL programmers still make boatloads of cash, so I could be wrong.