If Microsoft didn't offer a clarified time line for the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) step in its Windows 7 rollout, it at least urged observers not to "believe everything you read on the Internet" with regard to the rampant Windows 7 rumor mill and whether Windows 7 was finished. A blog response from Microsoft addressed rumors that the Windows 7 RTM had leaked, thanks to Windows 7 Ultimate edition 32- and
64-bit versions turning up on various
BitTorrent clients for download.
They're not real, claims Microsoft.
"We are close, but have not yet signed off on Windows 7," wrote Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc on the Windows 7 blog. "When we RTM you will most certainly hear it here. As we've said all along, we will RTM Windows 7 when it's ready. As previously stated, we expect Windows 7 to RTM in the 2nd half of July."
LeBlanc said Microsoft needs to get to a point of "global readiness" with its partners and references a May blog post from Steven Sinofsky, recently named Microsoft Windows Division President, that suggested Windows 7 isn't a "single point in time." RTM, according to LeBlanc, is "essentially the final 'stage' of engineering for Windows 7 before it hits the market at general availability." The post goes on to answer questions about leaked builds of Windows 7: "As always, beware of what you download."
While Windows 7 is a hot topic of conversation at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, there are other signs that enthusiasm for Windows 7 is fairly curbed. A survey of 1,100 IT administrators by ScriptLogic found that 59.3 percent of those administrators had "no current plans to deploy Windows 7," and only 5.4 percent sad they planned to deploy Windows 7 by the end of 2009.
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