Windows Vista RC1 On the Verge

Published: August 30, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1)--the first iteration of the final stage of testing for the new operating system--is on the verge of being released. That's the gist of several reports milling about the Net early this week as Microsoft watchers and beta testers eagerly anticipated getting their hands on the near-final version of the new OS. If the reports are true, then Microsoft suddenly is--gasp!--on track with its previously announced release schedule for Vista.

Microsoft has faced mounds of criticism over the development of Windows Vista, which has been stripped of features, completely junked and re-started, and delayed numerous times, most recently last spring, when the company backed off previously announced plans to make Vista available for the fall 2006 holiday shopping season, traditionally the busiest time of year for Microsoft and other tech vendors. The current schedule calls for Vista to be available to businesses by November and for consumers sometime in January.

These delays have been a sore spot for Microsoft, which desperately needs to get Vista out the door to satisfy several influential groups, including its Software Assurance customers, who are growing increasingly anxious that they'll see their maintenance contracts end before the new OS ships, and financial analysts just waiting to pummel the company's stock if Vista and the new version of Windows Server, codenamed "Longhorn," are delayed again. Some analysts recently cut their revenue projections for Microsoft in anticipation of another delay in Vista.

Despite these pressures, the software giant has soldiered on, continuing its determined efforts to whack away at bugs in Vista, to improve its quality, and to not let the publicly announced ship schedules for Vista determine the product's actual ship date.

To that end, late Monday Microsoft did something that indicates it's on the verge of unveiling the first release candidate: It released new Vista code--Build 5536--to the public, although it capped the downloads at 100,000.

This move is significant for two reasons. First, Build 5536, which was released to private testers late last week, is being billed as the cleanest iteration yet of the new operating system. Even hardened Vista critics have been forced to say nice things about it.

Secondly, the release of Build 5536 to the public is allowing Microsoft to test its release mechanisms and downloading infrastructure--including bringing in Akamai to help with an expected surge in demand for RC1--prior to making Vista RC1 available to the public. Microsoft said as much on its Windows Vista Team Blog, where the company also confirmed that Vista RC1 will be made available to the public.

Microsoft, cautious about appearing overly ambitious, made the following statement in response to questions about the availability of Vista RC1: "Microsoft expects to deliver the next broad public release of Windows Vista, RC1, later this quarter."

With no firm commitments from Microsoft, the consensus seems to be that Windows Vista RC1 will be finalized sometime this week (some said it was going to happen Monday evening), with the availability of RC1 to the public occurring early next month, possibly as soon as next week. If this RC1 release schedule holds, Microsoft could still have enough time for an RC2 release, if needed, and still make its previously announced ship schedule.

Something else happened that indicates the Vista ball is gathering momentum, albeit not rolling terribly smoothly: the inadvertent release of Windows Vista pricing information on the Internet. The pricing schedules for Vista were accidentally released on two Web sites this week, including Amazon and Microsoft's Canadian Web site. The prices were removed from the Microsoft Canada Web site soon after they were discovered, but they were still posted on the Amazon Web site as of late Tuesday.

The information shows that Vista pricing will be in the same ballpark as Windows XP pricing. For example, the Vista Home Basic edition will cost $233, the same as Windows XP. Similarly, the Vista Business edition will be priced at about $341, and Windows Vista Ultimate will be priced at $399. These are suggested retail prices, not necessarily what customers will end up paying. Microsoft hasn't publicly released pricing information for Vista yet; it is expected to do so when it makes a formal RC1 announcement, probably next week.

The slip-ups have also provided a glimpse into the exact data that Vista will become available. According to Amazon, Windows Vista will available on January 30, 2007. That's the date that Amazon listed on its page for Windows Vista Ultimate. That's a lot more detail than has been provided by Microsoft, which has only said that Windows Vista will be available in January.

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