Windows 8 & Server 2012 RTM

Well Microsoft said the first week of August for the RTM version of Windows 8 and Server 2012 and it's arrived!

Well kind of...

The Release To Manufacturing (RTM) was announced today and see's the final code wrapped up, finalised and is now starting to get shipped to Microsoft hardware partners (HP, Dell, Lenovo etc) who will finish their final testing ready to deliver devices with Windows pre-installed as from October 26th (September for servers with Server 2012).

What this means for us mere mortals and IT-Pros is that we still have to wait some more.

From the Windows Team blog the schedule looks like this:

• August 15th: Developers will be able to download the final version of Windows 8 via your MSDN subscriptions.
• August 15th: IT professionals testing Windows 8 in organizations will be able to access the final version of Windows 8 through your TechNet subscriptions.
• August 16th: Customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC), allowing you to test, pilot and begin adopting Windows 8 Enterprise within your organization.
• August 16th: Microsoft Partner Network members will have access to Windows 8.
• August 20th: Microsoft Action Pack Providers (MAPS) receive access to Windows 8.
• September 1st: Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 through Microsoft Volume License Resellers.

I was all prepped to rebuild our Customer Experience Center this week or next with RTM but now it looks like it will have to wait until I come back from holiday, which happens to be the week when the downloads become available (How inconsiderate Microsoft!)