Microsoft has decided that enough is enough and the public needs some more Windows 7 love in its life and has released the Release Candidate just before the promised date of 5 May.
This means that you can now effectively trial the new OS for a year before deciding if you want to buy the retail version, which can only be a good thing.
The RC will run until the 5 June 2010, so you can swim around in the successor to Windows Vista to your heart's content before finally having to fork out. However, there is a caveat to this.
Love our OS!
Microsoft is hoping that this new iteration of Windows will be the one to bring it back into the hearts of the public after the outcry over elements of Vista.
However, this doesn't mean that Windows Vista is going to be thrown out of the virtual window and into the garden of OS dereliction, chatting around a fire and wearing fingerless gloves with Windows 98 and Windows 3.1, as Microsoft has confirmed mainstream support for the OS until at least 2011.
And if the XP model is anything to go by then it'll be more than the mandatory four year support for the much-maligned Vista... looks like we won't be reporting the death of that OS for a few more years.
Now read How to get your copy of the Windows 7 RC today
