When will Microsoft get specific about the Windows 7 release date? Today's inadvertent leak of the Windows 7 Release Candidate page -- complete with a "May 2009" designation -- adds to the mounting pile of evidence that the company is aiming to finish the new operating system with lots of time to spare before this year's holiday shopping season.
As the name suggests, release candidates are the last big step before an operating system is released to manufacturing, or RTM, as it's known. Public availability typically comes shortly after RTM. Windows Vista's first release candidate came about two months before Vista's November 2006 RTM. Likewise, Windows XP's first release candidate also came about two months before its August 2001 RTM.
In other words, if the past is an accurate guide, Windows 7 would be released to manufacturing around July or August -- assuming the leaked May 2009 date refers to the schedule for the Windows 7 release candidate. (The leaked page has since been replaced, but this post by Emil Protalinski of Ars Technica has all the details.) That would translate into public availability of Windows 7 in the fall, if not sooner.
Microsoft, for the record, is still being cagey about the Windows 7 release, declining this morning to give specific dates. As Mary Jo Foley explains, "No published dates means no one can ever say you’re late."
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