Rtm is November. It is not so much deployment that is at stake but SA. Vista goes to the SA customers during December and MS starts distribution to OEMs and to retailers in January. The SA contracts are a key element to keep an eye on. MS is in the vice now.
RC1 has to make it out before Labor Day (US). I think MS will do it. Whistler was in worse shape at the same point and it was not nearly as complex.
I guess so, if RC1 isn't delayed Colin, and guessing those dates has never been terribly accurate for me but I think there is a decent chance that RTM will be delayed--better than the 80-20 Gates tossed off early this month. I hope so. Since the OS gets "reinvented" once every 5-6 years (Ballmer has said more often in the future but there who knows?) I want them to take as much time as they need.
Counterbalanced against delay are remarks like the ones last week in the NYT story and other media on MSFT about the cost of delaying--placed at a quater billion--but it seems to me that it is just cash deferred not lost and that delay isn't going to impact the marketability.
If anything, delay would seem to give large deployers even more time to make adjustments--to get with MSFT to customize and invent some for their needs.
Profit Lags as Microsoft Spends to Meet Competitors
By STEVE LOHR
Published: July 21, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/business/21soft.html?_r=2&oref=slogin
"Some analysts are already assuming in their financial models that Windows Vista, the next version of the desktop operating system, will be delayed another three months or so beyond its scheduled introduction to consumers in January. Mr. Liddell reiterated the company's intention to ship Vista in January, but he said if the timing slipped by a quarter it would "not be particularly significant" financially."
CH
RC1 is too close to expect another Beta 2 interim build. MS is only four months from rtm.
ah--
You get 10 installations per PK. This will happen for RC1. I have no idea if RC1 will have a different PK but they'll email you whenever it happens. My guess is there will be one more cpt build for the "mommy can we have another one tomorrow--when will we get ones" but it would be great if they would fix some of the major bugs that have persisted since before December whenever a build comes and whatever they call it--interim or so-called landmark. The bugs are there a little like an old house where the exterminator is not playing with a full deck.
In addition to the specious, pious languages on MSFT bug and feedback sites about how holy bugs are, it would be great if they actually fixed some of the major ones.
To wit: System File Checker
The toolbars on the main window for the Win Mail newsgroups
The false error messages
The convoluted, byzantine implementation of UAC ---I can workaround whatever it throws me. From what I saw in the majority of XP users for 6 years, it's going to be a bumpy road for those 400 to 500 million OEM desktops that MSFT projects will happen.
Where is someone on the Redmond campus who can fix the thing? Maybe they can hire some outside help to start fixing the bugs in major features. as well as the outside programmers to debug the code.
SFC IMHO ain't no small feature. Switches that actually replace files need to begin working.
CH
