Seems like Microsoft has come up with a formula to distribute legally and for free the development version of their upcoming operating system (Windows 7) to those who deserve an operating system at no cost; the computer geeks that is. It first started with the general availability of Windows 7 Beta a few months ago and now goes on with the availability of Windows 7 RC. The RC will expire on June 1 2010, but, practically, the operating system will start to automatically shutdown itself every two hours starting on March 1 2010, which will most probably render the OS unusable from that date onwards.

Windows 7 Beta is already installed in my triple-boot (CentOS, OpenSolaris, Windows) system, but I hadn’t had enough free time to spend on it during the last weeks. Anyhow, I’ve downloaded the RC version and intend to install it soon. Just a quick tip: although you can upgrade a Windows Vista installation to the Windows 7 RC version, upgrading a Windows 7 Beta system to the RC version is not supported.

Related Articles

• Microsoft releases part of Web Sandbox code under the Apache License
• Windows 7, OpenSolaris – put to the test
• Checking on Windows Vista
• Started using rdiff-backup on Windows
• Howto: Run VMWare on a Physical Windows Partition

Tags: Microsoft