Microsoft confirmed on Friday that Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100) will be available for download to the general public on May 5th for testing.
"I’m pleased to share that the RC is on track for April 30th for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Broader, public availability will begin on May 5th," wrote Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc in a corporate blog post yesterday.
I’ve been using Windows 7 beta on both my notebook and desktop computers since October, and it’s been a solid release. Even the beta product has proven to run much faster and more stable than Windows Vista. There are a number of bug fixes and new features available in the RC version (see Microsoft’s MSDN blog post for list of some of the changes), and looking forward to the upgrade.
What’s an RC?
From Wikipedia: The term release candidate (RC) refers to a version with potential to be a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization (read QA cycle), all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more Beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bug.