A fortnight is all the wait that is needed before MSDN subscribers will be able to get their hands on the release version of Microsoft’s Windows 8.
Overnight, Microsoft made the announcement that the OS had been released to manufacturing, along with a timetable of when Windows 8 would be available on the company’s various distribution programs.
MSDN and TechNet subscribers will get the final version of Windows 8 on 15 August (which likely means 16 August for Australians); 16 August will see the OS hit the Microsoft Partner Network, and customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition; Microsoft Action Pack Providers will receive Windows 8 on 20 August; and Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 on 1st September.
Availability for the general public remains 26 October.
Developers will also be able to download the final version of Visual Studio 2012 on 15th August. If the all-caps menus in the Visual Studio previews were not to your tastes, then get used to it. All-caps is beginning to creep its way through the entire Microsoft application family.
Coupled with the above announcements, Microsoft also announced that its Windows Store is open for paid apps and company accounts. To upload to the store, a developer will need the RTM copy of Windows.
