RTM vs Retail

[Sven]

OK, if RTM and Retail is exactly the same, then I have another dumb question.
What does Microsoft then do in the months between RTM-release and Retail release? If they found some bugs, would they not fix them then?
I must say, like Burgurne, that I'm confused about this.

I now ask a question, that I'm not quite sure is OK here, but I don't want to harm anybody.
Lordbo75 wrote If you mean now, then yes. You can get the builds from wherever, but when it is released, make sure you buy it .

Does that mean it is OK to find a leaked RTM version (if you can find a cd-key, as I guess the RC-keys will not work). I thought that was illegal! I can't go and buy a RTM, and the Retail is not for sale for some month yet, so now I'm confused.

 

[7echno7im]

OK, if RTM and Retail is exactly the same, then I have another dumb question.
What does Microsoft then do in the months between RTM-release and Retail release? If they found some bugs, would they not fix them then?
I must say, like Burgurne, that I'm confused about this.

I now ask a question, that I'm not quite sure is OK here, but I don't want to harm anybody.
Lordbo75 wrote If you mean now, then yes. You can get the builds from wherever, but when it is released, make sure you buy it .

Does that mean it is OK to find a leaked RTM version (if you can find a cd-key, as I guess the RC-keys will not work). I thought that was illegal! I can't go and buy a RTM, and the Retail is not for sale for some month yet, so now I'm confused.

Fixes would be released in patches on Patch Tuesday unless they were critical. Windows 7 Installer can check for install updates too, as started with Vista (Dynamic Updates). There may be updates ready in Windows update the day you install Windows 7 that were found between now and then. RTM is the "Golden Build" and will remain untouched until they release the next interim Windows 7 release, which would prob be Windows 7 SP1.

 

[Sammy]

Does that mean it is OK to find a leaked RTM version (if you can find a cd-key, as I guess the RC-keys will not work). I thought that was illegal! I can't go and buy a RTM, and the Retail is not for sale for some month yet, so now I'm confused.

It is illegal unless you get a TechNet or other MS subscriptions that offer Windows OS downloads, MS always puts the Final RTM version on TechNet etc before it comes out to the general public.

 

[Lordbob75]

I now ask a question, that I'm not quite sure is OK here, but I don't want to harm anybody.
Lordbo75 wrote If you mean now, then yes. You can get the builds from wherever, but when it is released, make sure you buy it .

Does that mean it is OK to find a leaked RTM version (if you can find a cd-key, as I guess the RC-keys will not work). I thought that was illegal! I can't go and buy a RTM, and the Retail is not for sale for some month yet, so now I'm confused.

Erhm.... Yes and No. You CAN use it if you have a purchased CD key. But since that would cost the same, you may as well buy it from a store.

~Lordbob

 

[PhreePhly]

OK, if RTM and Retail is exactly the same, then I have another dumb question.
What does Microsoft then do in the months between RTM-release and Retail release? If they found some bugs, would they not fix them then?
I must say, like Burgurne, that I'm confused about this.

I now ask a question, that I'm not quite sure is OK here, but I don't want to harm anybody.
Lordbo75 wrote If you mean now, then yes. You can get the builds from wherever, but when it is released, make sure you buy it .

Does that mean it is OK to find a leaked RTM version (if you can find a cd-key, as I guess the RC-keys will not work). I thought that was illegal! I can't go and buy a RTM, and the Retail is not for sale for some month yet, so now I'm confused.

The time between RTM and GA (General Availability) is used to manufacture to Millions of DVDs that need to get to the retail outlets. If a showstopper bug is found after RTM, a fix will be available via a patch for the retail product.

To answer your other question, I will use the following example:

I have a retail copy of Vista Ultimate. When SP1 and SP2 were released, I downloaded versions that had the SPs already slipstreamed, as it is my preferred method up upgrading to the newest SP. My key is legal, so I have no problem downloading these builds. I check the hashes with known sources.

PhreePhly

 

[Studulike]

Remember any version of Windows (Vista or Windows 7) is ok to install and use without a key for 30 without an activation. You then also have the option of rearm so technically you have kind of 120 days.
not totally sure of the legalities but you are never going to be prosecuted if you are not using an illegal key. 120 is going to give you plenty of time untill release so you can then go and buy.

 

[Sven]

OK, so you mean I can install Windows 7 WITHOUT having a CD-key?? I have never had Vista, so I don't know about this, but XP could not be installed without a key.
And if XP was not activated, then I could not use Windows update, as it could not validate my legallity.
How about running Windows 7 RTM without a CD-key then? Will Windows update work on this?

Phreephly I see your example, but you then have a legal cd-key, which I of course don't have for Windows 7 (yet), but if your example is legal, then this is what I am going to do from now on. I'm then finished slipstreaming cd's/dvd's myself from a way outdated OS (my org. XP-cd is from before SP1 for XP was released)

 

[fakeasdf]

Remember any version of Windows (Vista or Windows 7) is ok to install and use without a key for 30 without an activation. You then also have the option of rearm so technically you have kind of 120 days.
not totally sure of the legalities but you are never going to be prosecuted if you are not using an illegal key. 120 is going to give you plenty of time untill release so you can then go and buy.

Microsoft is the one that implemented the rearm functionality, they even tell you how to do it on their site... It's not illegal

 

[PhreePhly]

...

Phreephly I see your example, but you then have a legal cd-key, which I of course don't have for Windows 7 (yet), but if your example is legal, then this is what I am going to do from now on. I'm then finished slipstreaming cd's/dvd's myself from a way outdated OS (my org. XP-cd is from before SP1 for XP was released)

The only caveat is that you must make sure that the ISO you are downloading hasn't been altered. I know a number of folks with MSDN/TechNet accounts, so they can provide me the file hashes that I need.

If you download an iso with a rootkit built in, you will never get rid of it.

PhreePhly

 

[fakeasdf]

The only caveat is that you must make sure that the ISO you are downloading hasn't been altered. I know a number of folks with MSDN/TechNet accounts, so they can provide me the file hashes that I need.

If you download an iso with a rootkit built in, you will never get rid of it.

PhreePhly

Just to let you know PhreePhly you can sign up for a free TechNet account and view the hashes yourself

 

[PhreePhly]

Just to let you know PhreePhly you can sign up for a free TechNet account and view the hashes yourself

Really? Didn't know that. So I don't have download rights, but I can view the iso information?

I had MSDN for many years, but I'm not using it enough to justify the cost. I'm no longer writing much code anymore. I've been thinking about a TechNet (paid) account, but haven't run the numbers, yet.

PhreePhly

 

[Sven]

Just to let you know PhreePhly you can sign up for a free TechNet account and view the hashes yourself

I am a danish Viking, and English is not my first language, so that must be why I can't find the page to sign up for free. I can only find the one you have to pay for.

Do you have a link to it? TIA

 

[poin2]

I heard it as Release to Market. That would explain part of the confusion, and would clear it up.

So lets look at it like this:
RTM (as release to MARKET) would be the same as the retail (and OEM).
RTM (as release to MANUFACTURER) would be the OEM version, slighly different from OEM.

~Lordbob

RTM is Released to Manufacturing -- sometimes Released to Marketing (not Market). It's the phase at which the software is "signed off" and they start manufacturing discs and boxes and the marketing department takes over the process of putting it out there in the public's hands.

There is no Release to "Market." The term for when it actually enters the market is "General Availability."

RTM and Retail are the same software. It's simply packaged and on shelves and everything when it's "retail."

The OEM version of the software remains the same as RTM as well. They'll simply adjust activation and/or add things to it as the big OEM's themselves get their paws on it.

Anyway, RTM is the final "gold master" of the software. Things might happen to it later as it gets updates, gets boxed, the OEM's tweak it, it gets adjusted for "upgrade" versions, etc., but all of those get based off of the RTM "master" version of the software.

 

[fakeasdf]

I am a danish Viking, and English is not my first language, so that must be why I can't find the page to sign up for free. I can only find the one you have to pay for.

Do you have a link to it? TIA

Any Windows Live or Hotmail account can access it. Just go to Technet.com... Login... Download Tab... Click Windows on the Left Featured Products... Click one of the subscriptions on the right (You don't have to have a subscription to view them, just to download and get keys).

 

[Lordbob75]

RTM is Released to Manufacturing -- sometimes Released to Marketing (not Market). It's the phase at which the software is "signed off" and they start manufacturing discs and boxes and the marketing department takes over the process of putting it out there in the public's hands.

There is no Release to "Market." The term for when it actually enters the market is "General Availability."

RTM and Retail are the same software. It's simply packaged and on shelves and everything when it's "retail."

The OEM version of the software remains the same as RTM as well. They'll simply adjust activation and/or add things to it as the big OEM's themselves get their paws on it.

Anyway, RTM is the final "gold master" of the software. Things might happen to it later as it gets updates, gets boxed, the OEM's tweak it, it gets adjusted for "upgrade" versions, etc., but all of those get based off of the RTM "master" version of the software.

Alright, now I get it!

~Lordbob

 

[fakeasdf]

Alright, now I get it!

~Lordbob

Actually it stands for Release that Mother... Come on Microsoft, RTM, Hurry!!!

 

[Nibiru2008]

To make it clear, if you buy OEM and install and activate on your current machine and then six months later you want to build a new one, you can't move the OS over to the new build, it will not activate.

I had an OEM XP Pro for years, when I built two new systems, several years apart I had no issues getting an activation via phone with M$. Once I had to do it because I had changed video cards and put in a Firewire PCI card.

So perhaps there will not be an issue with the Windows 7 OEM either.

 

[Sven]

Has anybody heard something about Microsoft is going to sell a Study License as they did with Windows XP and MS Office? (don't know abot Vista). If so, which version of Windows 7 will it be?

 

[Sammy]

Has anybody heard something about Microsoft is going to sell a Study License as they did with Windows XP and MS Office? (don't know abot Vista). If so, which version of Windows 7 will it be?

Oh you mean Academic License, they have just 2 for Vista, Maybe the same for Windows 7.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/license/howtobuy/agreements/studentselect.aspx

 

[Sven]

Well, yes and no ?!? Windows XP Study licence (so it says on my package) was sold to anybody thats study, or go to school, and even to parents whom had 1 or more kids in school. It costs about $96 in 2002 when I got mine for a Windows XP Pro Upgrade CD with Study licence, and I have used it ever since.
The link you gave me shows that you have to be in a higher education to get the cheeper licence.
I'm not sure, but I think the Office Study Licence was a bit harder to get. Buying XP Study from a computer shop, and you got the CD and CD-key with you home right away, but Office study licence just gave you a card to fill out and snailmail to Microsoft Denmark, and when they had aproved the filled card, they would send you the CD and CD-key.
Was that only in Denmark is was this way?
Since XP is not sold anymore, I can't find that licence online at Microsoft anymore.
I'll just have to wait and see then.