Windows 7 GA

As the GA date for Win7 nears, momentum grows, but…

I’ve been trolling the various blogs, the download site, and the news lately to keep up as the final pieces fall into place for the long-anticipated general availability date for Windows 7 on Thursday, October 22 (just a little under two weeks away as I write this blog). I’m seeing evidence of some real progress being made, but I also find myself wondering how close MS will go to the wire on providing some final last-minute materials.

Take the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor as an example. MS updated that tool on September 17, but they haven’t released the final production version yet. I’m wondering how much change there’ll be from the current beta to that version, if any at all. I’m also wondering how long they’re going to wait to make this transition. I’d made a bet with myself that this would occur two weeks prior to GA (yesterday, in other words) but alas I’ve lost that bet as this morning’s check turns up no new versions in the MS Download Center.

The Windows 7 Logo Program finally became publicly visible at the end of September — see Mark Relph’s blog on that subject dated 9/30/2006 — and starts out with pretty good critical mass with over 6000 products that can bear this logo:

Windows 7 Compatible Hardware & Software Logo

But there’s still precious little information publicly available about exactly which hardware items bear this logo, nor can I find anything about logo’d items at winqual.microsoft.com just yet. I guess this will be another piece that falls into place sometime between today and October 22.

The final, final release of Windows XP Mode won’t occur until that day, as Brandon Leblanc posted on 10/1/09 to inform readers about when it would appear for general access in the Microsoft Download Center. Perhaps this is a harbinger of what’s ahead: dead calm for the next little while, then everything hits the ‘net on 10/22. No wonder Microsoft uses Akamai to help it with downloads — despite their many data centers and formidable infrastructure, there’s no way one company can handle the millions of downloads that will begin on October 22.

Stay tuned. You can be sure more is coming, if only on (or not until) “GA Day!”

Windows 7 Launches on 10/22/2009

OK, now the rumors are no longer rumors, and the launch date, aka GA (General Availability),  is out thanks to Steve Ballmer’s keynote at Computex (much) earlier today in Taipei, Taiwan, and Brandon LeBlanc’s “Date for General Availability” posting to the Windows 7 Team Blog yesterday.

Here’s the deal, in broad strokes:

• Windows 7 hits store shelves on 10/22/2009, ostensibly to have it ready for the holiday buying season (lots of others outside MS are speculating it’s more of a pre-emptive strike against Android which becomes available at the end of October)
• The Windows 7 Upgrade Option will kick in “soon” which permits those who purchase a new and qualifying PC to exercise  “…a special deal to upgrade to Windows 7…” Look for Brandon to blog about this program with dates and more details as “soon” becomes “real soon,” I guess! (According to TechARP, a usually reliable source for leaked MS secrets, this will happen on July 1.)
• RTM should occur some time in mid-July, with Windows Server 2008 R2 following in the same time frame.

OK, now what  I want to know is when MSDN and TechNet subscribers can lay hands on the RTM version. I hope we’ll see some more information on that very soon. Not only am I itching to get and use this code, I’m also working on a book that we’re going to have to review very thoroughly to make sure it agrees with the RTM version in all respects and in every screenshot. Stay tuned!