Has Windows Vista gone RTM early?

Online reports over the weekend suggest Windows Vista has ‘secretly’ gone RTM (release to manufacturing), and is already on the way to manufacturers, beating Microsoft’s revised internal deadline of Wednesday, November 8. Is it true?

According to an online report from veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, Office 2007 went to RTM status sometime last Friday, the 3rd of November, and that Windows Vista went RTM over the weekend. No doubt Office 2007 is now on the way to Microsoft’s chosen CD pressing facilities, ready for release to customers on or after November 30, the day that Office 2007, Exchange 2007 and the business edition of Windows Vista are set to launch.

Mary Jo reports that the current story is that after the release of Windows Vista to RTM status, be it over the weekend or November 8 as planned, computer manufacturers will get it on November 18, so they can start shipping it to their business customers from that date onwards, before the official November 30 release date.

Former Microsoftie and famously prolific blogger Robert Scoble has also speculated that Vista has gone RTM over the weekend. He quotes unnamed sources within Microsoft, but neither Mary Jo nor Robert are offering concrete proof.

However with only two days to go as I write, this week should definitely see the RTM announced with great fanfare, as it is the milestone all software developers strive to achieve. Then comes the bug fixes, patches and updates! But let’s no spoil Microsoft’s celebration… at least not yet.

There’ll be many column inches and blogging bytes expended to document those patches that are yet to come.

One of Scoble’s readers asked why he’d posted a rumour about Vista when he’s no longer an internal Microsoft person, able to post with authority on Microsoft happenings. Scoble replied “Because I can. It’s my blog.”

Vista’s imminent RTM status followed one of Vista’s more controversial moments in the last few weeks – the issue of the Vista EULA, or end user license agreement.

With Vista originally slated to be licensed to one machine only, with only one opportunity to transfer a license to another machine for hardware upgraded purposes, Microsoft unleashed a wave of anger from users who regularly modified their machines.

Restricting them to one new installation would mean that they would have to soon re-purchase Vista again, just because they were very keen computer users interested in keeping their hardware up-to-date with the latest.

Windows XP’s activation was originally slated to cause problems in this regard, but has actually turned out to be no problem for computer tech types who regularly upgraded their machine. They did not want the freedom to upgrade hardware taken away.

Now Microsoft has finally relented, allowing users to install their copy of Vista on a new machine, as long as it is fully uninstalled from a previous machine. There no longer appears to be a limit to the number of times this can be done. Hardware changes will also be less likely to demand re-activation in cases that would have caused Windows XP to ask you to re-activate.

So, it’s great to see Microsoft actually listening to its customers, the people that are the source of a great deal of Microsoft’s income. All we’re waiting for now is… Vista!

For more Vista information straight from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, where he says Vista is ‘a real boon’ you can read an interview conducted over the weeked at the Arizona Daily Star.

And no, given Steve Ballmer’s animated dancing on stage at previous Microsoft events, where he kinda looks like a baboon, there was no joke about this and his statement that Vista is ‘a real boon’ in the article. Oh well.

More Vista news as soon as we get it!