Windows 8 Released to Manufacturing, Server 2012 RTM & The Windows Store is Open!

Windows 8 RTM’d on August 1st 2012 and will be made available to developers and techs on August 15th. 

Windows 8 Retail box

 “General Availability” meaning retail packaging and OEM hardware sales will commense on October 26th.

The President of the Microsoft’s Windows group said:

While we have reached our RTM milestone, no software project is ever really ‘done.’ We will continue to monitor and act on your real world experiences with Windows 8—we’ve used the preview process to test out our servicing and we have every intent of doing a great job on this next important phase of the product.

 

Microsoft’s Antoine Lablond also announced:

Today marks an important milestone for the Windows Store as we move from preview toward the general availability of Windows 8. We’re again expanding our market coverage, committed as ever to creating a developer opportunity of unprecedented scale. We’re opening the Store up for company registrations and are now accepting paid apps. Finally, we’ve advanced the Store design in response to Release Preview feedback. Ted Dworkin, Partner Program Manager for the Store, authored this post.

Windows Server 2012 (formerly codenamed Server 8) was also RTM’d and will be available September 4th. 

Personally, I am most interested in Server 2012 and the vast Hyper V enhancements.  It looks VERY interesting.