I received the following email from Microsoft with regards to my many questions last week about the Vista release schedule:
We wanted to give you on an update on the delivery schedule for Windows Vista SP1 RTM code. Many of our more technical customers have made the request that we make SP1 available to them sooner rather than later, and we are listening. Last Friday, February 8th, we made SP1 code available to our TechBeta customers and later this week, on February 15th, we will be making the English version of Windows Vista SP1 available to Volume Licensing customers; other languages will follow. We will be making SP1 available to our MSDN and TechNet subscribers later this month. For general availability, we are still planning to release in the mid-March timeframe, as we want to ensure the general public has the smoothest experience possible. You can find more information on our delivery schedule in a blog post by Mike Nash that will go live at approximately 8AM tomorrow (2/11) PST, on the Windows Vista Team blog.
That blog post can be found here:
I want to update you on our plans and progress for making SP1 available to our beta participants, our Volume Licensing customers, and our MSDN/TechNet Plus subscribers:
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Late Friday we made SP1 RTM available to individuals and companies who participated in the SP1 beta program
At the end of this week we will be making the English version of Windows Vista SP1 available to Volume Licensing customers. Other languages will follow soon after.
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Later this month, SP1 will be available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers.
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For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, since we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible.
I want to be super-clear on one point: Windows Vista SP1 is final. It has been fully released to manufacturing and we do not plan to make any changes to the SP1 code prior to public availability. We are confident in the quality of Windows Vista SP1 and know that it will help improve our customers' experiences with Windows Vista.