A Microsoft liberou dia 04/02/2008 a versão RTM (Released To Manufacture) do Service Pack 1 (SP1) para o Windows Vista e o novo Windows Server 2008, o que significa que ambos já estão prontos e finalizados.

Conforme o site da empresa, tanto o Vista SP1 como o Windows Server 2008 estarão disponíveis para o consumidor em março/2008.
Para os clientes que tenham algum tipo de assinatura disponibilizada pela MS, poderão ter acesso no final de fevereiro/08.

Esse tempo entre a versão RTM e a Retail se faz necessário para que parceiros OEMs, fabricantes de hardware tenham tempo para atualizar seus produtos, para que funcionem perfeitamente nessas novas versões na data de lançamento oficial, por exemplo device drivers.

Abaixo segue a press release (em inglês) do lançamento.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 4, 2008

What: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released to manufacturing today and will start being available to customers in March, starting with Microsoft Volume Licensing customers. Windows Server 2008 was also released to manufacturing today and will be available for purchase to new customers on March 1. Microsoft Volume Licensing customers with active Microsoft Software Assurance coverage or an Enterprise Agreement will be able to download the server software toward the end of February as part of the joint Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 “Heroes Happen Here” launch event.

Where: http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/default.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/feb08/02-04WS2008.mspx

How: Windows Vista SP1 includes quality improvements that help enhance reliability, security and performance. Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of past server solutions and helps give organizations a solid foundation for their information technology (IT) infrastructure. Organizations using Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 together can see a number of improvements for IT professionals, including benefits in security and manageability, overall system performance, and streamlined planning and deployment.

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