When the CRN Test Center last looked at Microsoft Windows Vista, it was obvious the operating system was far from complete, which wasn"t a surprise because it was still a beta version. On Sept. 1, Microsoft began rolling out Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1), raising hopes that all of the major issues have been resolved in the months since the beta two version. And it appears those hopes have been largely fulfilled.
RC1 brings measurable improvements to Vista and should help assuage some key concerns about the operating system, such as compatibility, performance and readiness for Microsoft"s planned ship date of January 2007. RC1 also brings a stable enough version of Vista so that system builders and integrators can learn the ins and outs of the platform before gold code hits manufacturing. Microsoft typically has put out a release candidate before shipping the gold code of a product, an indication that the feature set and user interface are pretty much complete