blackroseMD1
Extraordinary Member
What happened? Why didn't we see a leak? Whats going on in Microsoft? I can answer that all below.
The news I posted a few days ago was correct at the time. Friday, June 19, a team of engineers got together and tried to decide which RTM candidate to recompile as the final RTM. The candidates were:
6.1.7260.0.win7_rtm.090612-2110
6.1.7261.0.win7_rtm.090615-1900
6.1.7262.0.win7_rtm.090617-1900
However, the team of engineers could not make a decision. These three builds were compiled from three different branches, most likely (and this part is conjecture) winmain, winmain_sp, and winmain_ids.
Since the engineers could not come to a decision on which build was the final RTM (though early word had come out that 7262 had won), Microsoft decided to cancel the signing of RTM on June 19, 2009. The next step was to decide how the RTM should be compiled and what the new signing date should be. The next night, on June 20, a new build was compiled. Here at VinylZine we can confirm for you that the build 6.1.7264.0.win7_rtm.090620-1900 does indeed exist. However, our sources say nothing about the existence of 6.1.7263.0.win7_rtm.090619-1900 so we can neither confirm or deny its existence, though it does not seem to jive with the information we have received.
On the compilation of 7264, the idea was to try to bring together all the branches and builds of 7260-7262 and recompile them in to a single build. While cosmetically and functionally the engineers were satisfied, the end result was not pretty. A few major bugs and several minor bugs were introduced in 7264. So now, this build has to be thrown out the window, and Microsoft is left with 2 options.
The first of which is to dig deep in to internal, non winmain builds and attempt a couple compiles today and vote on them. Thats what is going on right now in Redmond. Should this process have been successful, RTM will be compiled and kept tight until at least June 28. However, in writing this article, we found that this process was not successful. Therefore, a new RTM branch was open. We don't know the exact details, but we can possibly expect 1-2 more leaks now before the final RTM is signed, June 29, 2009.
Though of course itis still possible to miss this date, doing so would have dire consequences to Microsoft's marketing strategy and may cause them to miss the announced Oct. 22, 2009 GA date.
It seems as though the news I posted on Win7Vista as vinylfreak89 nearly a month ago that RTM will hit June 30 will indeed turn out to be true.
In other news, there are some new surprises for the RTM. In Europe, Windows 7 will be released in localized and N versions lacking a web browser. Of course, IE8 or any other browser can be freely downloaded from the web at any time. Also, Windows Media Player 11, not 12 will be released with Windows 7, though it will be a modified version that allows the native playback of all 1080p, 1080i, and 720p HD content in all of the major formats. As well, OEMs will distribute Windows 7 with the default search engine set to Bing, not Windows Live Search.
So I leave you with this final piece of info, not at all related to Windows 7. Microsoft Security Essentials will enter public beta by the end of the month and will be distributed 100 % for free including all future updates at the final release.
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[U]www.vinylzine.com[/U]
