Microsoft announced a new build of its Windows 10 operating system today, with version 10240 deploying to both the “Fast” and “Slow” Windows Insider rings. It’s been widely reported that this is the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) version of Windows, since it’s dropping after new builds are no longer available from ISO versions and must be installed via Windows Update.
Microsoft, however, is shying away from such language, and has repeatedly emphasized that this is just the “next” version of Windows.
Much of this flows from the concept that Microsoft really, really wants Windows to be seen as a software-as-a-service product that doesn’t really “have” launch dates anymore, but whether or not the market agrees to make this shift is anything but certain.
While it’s true that Microsoft’s major competitors have adopted a more frequent update schedule, it’s not at all accurate to paint either Google or Apple as having abandoned either version numbers or discrete product launches. New iOS or Android updates arrive roughly once a year, often with significant UI and performance changes under-the-hood. Bug fixes are packaged in discrete releases, as are new features.
Ironically, it’s always been Microsoft that pushed the idea of a semi-invisible Windows version that was largely defined by a periodic refresh cycle or service pack rather than the multi-year cadence of iOS 8, 8.1, 8.2, or Google’s multiple 4.x or 5.x releases. Either you ran Windows 7 or Windows 7 Service Pack 1, despite the fact that Windows 7 debuted six years ago.
In any event, some folks are calling this RTM, but Microsoft isn’t officially one of them. We won’t know which way things turned out until we see which version of the OS is actually on shipping hardware.
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