It’s that time again. Is the 7600 Build the official RTM build, or isn’t it? We won’t be able to tell until Microsoft will officially declare the build: “RTM.”

When Vista was released, there were several “6000” builds before the official one was released, starting with 16384 (the 16*1024 number) and moving up to 17015 all which were “claimed” RTM, but none of them were.

A Microsoft spokesman denied today that Windows 7 has gone RTM. Is this because of the fact that there will be an announcement tomorrow at the Worldwide Partner Conference by Steve Ballmer, or is it simply the truth, maybe they need their time to test the build.

Think of it, testing software takes time. The build number 090710-1945 indicates this build is 3 days old, with a weekend in the middle… How can they test it this fast? It takes almost a full day to build the beast! (Build numbers are assigned before the build starts) A whole lot of tests are automated and are taking place during or after the build of software, but still I think there will be a lot of things that needs to be done by hand.

To add to the confusion, several screenshots have been seen on websites, some stating the obvious (the 7600 number in WinVer) and some stating the full build string. Some news reporters say “Yes, it is RTM”, some say “It’s too early to know for sure”, it’s all pure speculation.

So if you ask me, if 7600 might be the final build number, sure it could be. Is it 16384? It would be nice, but I don’t think so. I think it is the first build in a series of test builds, just as we saw when Vista was created.

I am surprised to see how quickly this build made it onto the torrent sites. This must really be a matter of hours between build completion and online availability. That’s kind of stunning, and I think Microsoft has a big problem on her hands when software makes it out of the build lab so quickly.

It would be nice if I am wrong, in that case you can be sure tomorrow morning because if 16384 is really the RTM version, I’m betting that Steve Ballmer will announce RTM during his keynote speech.

And for those of you who want to know if I’m downloading Windows 7? No I’m not. I’ll grab the build of MSDN as soon as it is there.

UPDATE: It seems that I was right. There’s already a newer build in the wild, that’s number 16385. Friday July 24th there is an announcement expected, so it’s “wait and see”

UPDATE 2: The RTM Prediction Advisory of Long Zeng is here: http://islongwrongaboutwindows7rtm.com/

Monday, July 13, 2009 7:11:05 PM (Pacific SA Standard Time, UTC-04:00)      Comments [0]