Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM!!
Yes I know I’m a day late but hey I had to get Windows 7 RTM installed on my primary machine before I headed off to the US. At 1.40 PST on July 22nd 2009 we released Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 simultaneously to 
what we call RTM or Released to Manufacturing. This means we declared build 7600 as the final build ready to ship to customers. This is also the first time since 2000 that we have been in-sync with both the server and client operating systems. This is quite a milestone for us and in the end represents great value for all our customers. Personally I’ve been running Windows 7 since the PDC build was released last year and in production since the Beta and it’s been quite a ride. I’ve installed it what seems like thousands of times, presented many sessions both in person and on the web. All through the Beta cycle the feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive. You’ll like the speed and overall performance of Windows 7.
But before I go on I want to thank all of you that have tested the Beta and the RC because without your feedback we couldn’t make these products as great as they are. Those of you that have tested it and provided us with feedback; THANK YOU!! And especially the Australian IT Community. You folks are fearless and have sent me many stories about how you have run Windows 7 in production and have provided feedback which has been tremendous!
The First 24 Hours
Well yesterday I installed my main production laptop with the x64 RTM build and things went really smooth. So I bet you are asking, what’s it like? Well in a word FAST!! I mean really fast compared to the Release Candidate. What I’ve noticed is the networking seems so much quicker than the RC. It just seems to copy files faster and download from the web that much quicker. And it just seems to be so much snappier throughout the UI. But I guess we should expect that since the debug code has been removed. And on the same hardware my Windows experience Index has gone from 5.1 to 5.7 without any changes other than using RTM. Here’s a screenshot.
And of course the default bitmap has changed from the Siamese Fighting Fish to a new branded Windows logo.
I haven’t upgraded all my server hardware to R2 yet because I’m on my way to the US for TechReady which is our internal Teched event so I’ll have to wait until I get back for all that stuff. Plus I have to start building the image for the NetBooks for TechEd Australia. Up until now we have been building against the RC so now that the RTM is out we’ll be working against that. I will post more on that topic in a future post. But as I travel to the US please enjoy this little video from our annual sales kick-off event that just happened in Atlanta. Steven Sinofsky announces Windows 7 and gets Steve Ballmer and Kevin Turner to sign! It’s a good time to be a PC!
Technorati Tags: RTM,Windows 7,Windows Server 2008 R2
Jeffa