Haven't gotten around to downloading your copy of the Windows 7 Release Candidate yet? Well you'd better hurry up. Tomorrow is the last day to download the pre-release version of the operating system.

You don't need to install or activate the release candidate this week. You'll still be able to get a product key. But the download links will go away later this week. The official ones anyway.

Of course, the full version of Windows 7 will be available on October 22nd, so you may wonder if there's even any point in installing the RC now. But here's the thing: It doesn't expire until June 1st, 2010. In other words, you can still use the release candidate for another 10 months free of charge while deciding whether you want to shell out the money to purchase a full copy. Of course, this is all in the name of helping test the product and provide feedback for Microsoft to improve the operating system.

There is a catch. Starting on March 1st, if you're still running Windows 7 RC your computer will automatically shut down every two hours as a gentle reminder that your time is running out. But the only other way you're going to get to spend the next 10 months with a free operating system is to download one that's, you know, really free. Like Ubuntu, Mandriva, or PCLinuxOS.

Mozilla pushed out a third release candidate for Firefox 3.5 last night. If you're running an earlier release candidate or Firefox 3.5 beta, you may have woken up this morning to a message alerting you that there's a new security and stability update.

The tricky thing is Mozilla has a habit of leaving the "RC" out of the labels for its release candidates. This can prompt a lot of folks to think that they've just downloaded the final build of Firefox 3.5. The reason Mozilla does this is because if there are no major problems with the release candidate, effectively it will be Firefox 3.5. And it'd be silly to expect you to download and install an identical version of the browser just to get rid of the "RC" in its name.

That said, Firefox 3.5 RC3 is now available for download from the Firefox beta page. Existing users can upgrade by clicking the "check for updates" option in the Help menu of their browsers.

After several bloggers (including yours truly) reported on a news item from Softpedia about Windows 7 build 7048 1) being an actual build and 2) being labeled a release candidate, Microsoft's own Steven Sinofsky has set the record straight.

First, the current build is actually 7046 as stated in an email conversation between Sinofsky and Geeksmack. Second, as noted by one of our commenters, every build now is technically an RC since they are post-beta - since the Release Candidate is the next milestone.

Second, a date has apparently been chosen for the actual deployment of Windows 7 RC1. As long as development continues to progress the way it has, we'll see its release on April 10, 2009.

There's been understandable concern from some that Microsoft may be cutting corners in an attempt to get Windows 7 on the market as soon as possible. Let's hope that's not the case, and that the next six weeks provide the team enough time to improve upon an already good product.

[ via NeoWin ]

As millions of beta testers continue to experiment with Windows 7, news has surfaced this morning that they may, in fact, already have built Release Candidate 1.

It's a bit early to say with any certainty at this point, but heere's what we know so far.

The last Windows 7 build ISO to leak onto torrent trackers was 7022.Winmain.090115-1850, which appears to have a timestamp of January 15, 2009 4:50PM. Following that leak, screenshots appeared of another build: 7032.0.winmain.090129-1812 (January 29, 6:12PM).

This morning, Softpedia has reported that the newest leak contains an interesting addition to the file name: 7048.winmain_win7rc1.090211-1625. While it's worth noting that the build was completed seven days ago, the more noteworthy change is the introduction of rc1 to the name.

Do those three characters mean Windows 7 is ahead of schedule?

Wzor.net - the same place that leaked the Office 14 screenshots - has already reported that Microsoft is anticipating an April 2009 release for RC1. If it's ready sooner, things bode well for Microsoft who would no doubt like to ship Windows 7 in advance of the 2009 holiday season.

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is due out on October 30th. But if you just can't wait that long, you can download the release candidate. If no major bugs are found between today and next Thursday, this release candidate will effectively become the final version of Ubuntu 8.10. So you'll be able to tell all your friends that you've been using it for almost a week longer than they have. And they'll just look at you funny and ask you "what's A Buntu?"

If you're using Ubuntu 8.04, you can also upgrade automatically. You can find instructions in the release notes.

Intrepid Ibex features a number of updates since Ubuntu 8.04, although not enough to make the entire operating system unrecognizable. Users should notice a new version of the GNOME desktop environment with support for tabs in the file manager, and a bunch of bug fixes. There are also new optional desktop themes.

If you're using Ubuntu Studio to edit audio and video, it's recommended that you not upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 yet, since it uses Linux kernel 2.6.27 which can cause some latency problems.

Now that Windows Vista SP1 has been out for a few months, there's no particularly good reason that you should be running an early release candidate of the service pack. But if you're too lazy to have uninstalled it, you've got about two weeks before Microsoft forces you to do so.

Starting June 30th, any machines running a release candidate of Windows Vista SP1 will only be able to run for about an hour at a time. Basically, you boot your system, it runs normally for an hour, and then the kernel shuts down and you get a message that says END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD. At least it's fairly easy to understand.

But wait! Didn't Microsoft push Windows Vista SP1 final out through automatic updates? Well, yes, it did. But you can only install Windows SP1 if you've first rolled back any release candidates of the service pack. So if you haven't done that yet, there's no time like the present.

[via Flexbeta]

Opera has launched a release candidate of Opera 9.5, the latest version of the company's web browser. Opera 9.5 has been in beta for several months, but the release candidate is a bit more stable, sports a few new features, and more importantly, a bunch of bug fixes. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Features a previously mentioned new skin
• Smoother upgrade from Opera 9.2 to 9.5
• "Download message bodies" enabled on all POP accounts
• Stability fixes
• Improvements to the Mac native skin and fixed support for Mac OS X 10.2

Unless major issues with Opera 9.5 RC are found, this version could eventually be marked a stable release. If you haven't tried Opera in a while, it's worth taking for a spin. While there are still a handful of sites and web services that don't render properly in Opera, (Google, we're looking at you), overall the browser is incredibly fast and full featured.

Mozilla has pushed out the first release candidate for Firefox 3. That means this version should be more stable than any of the betas that have been released over the last year, but there may still be some bugs to work out. If you want to be absolutely certain you won't lose settings or mess up your system somehow, you might want to hold off on downloading Firefox 3 until a final build is released. That said, we've been playing with early builds of Firefox 3 for months, and it's way faster than Firefox 2 and includes some nifty new features like improved bookmark management and a more useful location bar.

Firefox 3 RC1 looks and feels a lot like Firefox 3 beta 5, but there are a few changes:

• Changes to the JavaScript engine and optimizations for web applications like Gmail and Zoho Office
• Improvements to the user interface
• Changes and fixes for bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and location bar autocomplete
• Security improvements

You can check out the complete list of changes in the release notes, or you can just go ahead and download the release candidate. Firefox 3 is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Microsoft has released an updated release candidate of Windows Vista SP1 to about 15,000 beta testers. It's not entirely clear at the moment what changes are included in this update, but the release does show that we can expect at least a few more tweaks before Microsoft releases the final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Microsoft pushed out a public release candidate of SP1 last month. Unfortunately downloading and installing that version does not make you a member of Microsoft's inner circle, which means that you won't necessarily be able to download the new version through Windows Update or from Microsoft's password-protected download page.

On the other hand, some members of the Neowin forum have posted what may be a direct download link. This probably goes without saying, but download at your own risk.

[via gHacks]

As expected, Microsoft has made the release candidate of Windows Vista SP1 available to the general public. There are several ways to get grab the update. You can download a registry key that will allow you to install SP1 through Windows Update. Or you can just download a standalone installer. Depending on your needs, that file will be between 436MB and 878MB. (There are four versions of the standalone installer, two for x86 systems, and two for x64 systems).

You're probably better off going through Windows Update, as Vista will just install the packages that you need. But you may have to check for updates and reboot several times before you actually get SP1.

We're still test driving our copy of Vista SP1 RC, but we've been hearing so much about this update over the last few months that we almost feel like the magic wore off before it was even released. While there are a ton of bug fixes, reliability, and compatibility enhancements in Windows Vista SP1, users shouldn't expect a major performance boost.

Bear in mind, this is a release candidate, not a final release. That means Microsoft could still make some changes before pushing Service Pack 1 out to all customers early next year. It also means that if you don't want to be a glorified beta tester (we know, a release candidate is more stable than a beta, but no one ever talks about "release candidate testers") you might want to hold off on downloading SP1 RC. For a little while at least.