After announcing last month that the upcoming Windows 8.1 update will ship to vendors (otherwise known as “release to manufacturing,” or RTM) in late August, Microsoft is gearing up for a mid-October public release, according to sources speaking Monday with ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley. Notably, it looks like TechNet and MSDN subscribers won’t be getting the final build early, and will have to wait until the public launch:
The new word, one of my best tipsters tells me, Microsoft is going to hold off on making available the final Windows 8.1 bits until mid-October 2013 or so. That will be both the general availability date, as well as the “launch” date when new hardware running those bits will be available.
TechNet and MSDN subscribers have traditionally received access to the final builds of Windows updates after Microsoft’s OEM partners but before the general public. Microsoft’s decision to hold off and release Windows 8.1 to everyone at once may be an effort to generate a more exciting launch.
Even though the public preview of Windows 8.1 has been available for many weeks, many more changes and improvements are expected for the final version. Releasing the final build of the update to developers and testers ahead of the public will result in weeks of articles, screenshots, and opinions on every change Windows 8.1 brings, all before the public can get their hands on it. With a simultaneous release, the entirety of Microsoft’s consumer audience will get to experience Windows 8.1 together. With builds certain to leak, however, such a strategy, if true, may not provide the desired outcome.
Another reason to delay the availability of Windows 8.1 for everyone except OEMs until mid-October is that it gives Microsoft a few more weeks to squash any newly-discovered bugs. Windows 8.1 can be dynamically updated during installation, so even if bugs are present in the RTM version shipped to vendors, consumers will have their installations patched on the fly and won’t run into them.
Microsoft is expected to make more information available as the company’s promised RTM date nears.
Windows 8.1 will be a free update, delivered via the Windows Store, for all users running Windows 8. It brings many improvements and tweaks to Windows 8 UI, along with support for new hardware.
