Windows 7 RC out for consumers today, Vista SP2 coming

Well, the long awaited RC release of Windows 7 finally goes out today (here) for the general public. The RC will be active till June 2010 (2 hourly restarts starting 1st March though.
Windows 7 has gotten decent enough reviews that lots of people (me included) are looking forward to trying it out. Even though Vista improved a lot post SP1, with the Vista perception being what it is, MS needs a new OS to start the cycle all over again, even if its just a tweaked version of the Vista codebase. To their credit, it is supposedly lighter than Vista and has a couple of new features which should make the whole experience even easier.

What to watch out for:

  • The RC cannot be installed over a beta Windows 7 release. You need a new install OR an upgrade over a Vista install.
  • Once the RTM version goes out, you cannot upgrade the RC to RTM directly, but will need a new install or a vista install again.

I am hoping MS gives Vista users a cheap upgrade option to move to 7. I need that. 😉

In other news, Vista SP2 has RTMed (Released To Manufacturing – implies its done from the coding/testing point of view) as well and should be available soon.