Microsoft Vista RTM Leaked

Microsoft released the RTM (Ready To Manufacture) of Windows Vista. This new operating system (which was delayed numerous times, and stripped of intended innovations like WinFS, and Windows PowerShell) is supposed to be the next best thing that could happen to you. Well, I have to see that for myself first. I played around with some beta's in the last couple of months, and I can't say that I'm impressed. But maybe, the RTM will surprise me.

Today I stumbled onto a leaked RTM iso file on the Internet which holds all versions of Vista (both 32bit and 64bit versions). This means that I could test all versions of the OS. With no valid license key it's possible to evaluate Vista for 30 (or 60) days, so I will start to evaluate within the next couple of days, and see for myself if there's any need in upgrading my Windows XP Professional PC to Vista.

I'll keep you posted on the evaluation.

UPDATE: I installed Vista in Parallels on my Mac Book Pro. The installation took about 30 minutes, which surprised me a little. I choose the Ultimate Edition of Vista, which is supposed to be the most expensive version of Windows Vista.

Within Parallels, you have the possibility of installing the Parallels tools. They enhance the user experience of the virtual machine, and install the appropriate drivers for video and the network adapter. After installing the tools Vista isn't able to shut the OS down properly. After selecting 'Shutdown', the virtual machine crashed. Same thing happened on earlier beta versions of Vista. This means that an Parallels update for this 'Vista' issue is imminent. Apart from that it seems to work fine. Perhaps, I should try VMWare as well as a testing environment. Too bad that VMWare doesn't work on my Mac Book Pro :(

If all goes well, I'm able to get an official MSDN-key for Vista later next week. Let's see if this version will accept the key, so that I'm able to experiment a little longer than the initial 30 days.