Microsoft may be forced to delay the launch of the Vista operating system following a last minute hitch in the testing. According to reports, a major bug emerged in one of the latest builds of the operating system that caused a complete crash of the system and necessitated a reinstallation.
According to the Taiwan-based news service Digitimes, local PC manufacturers have been told that the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) code they were expecting in the fourth week of October has been put back to the second week of November.
Digitimes says that the RTM build 5824 was originally due for release this week after the bug count in the Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2) version had been reduced from 1,450 to around 500.
In a follow up report from IDG. Ethan Allen – who runs a QA firm in Seattle and is working on Vista – revealed that the Microsoft development team discovered the bug, which ‘would totally crash the system, requiring a complete reinstall,’ in Vista Build 5824 last Friday 13th. The team fixed the bug a week later in the subsequent Vista Build 5840, but the problem meant a knock on delay of the final Vista build to PC manufacturers.
The new target date for OEMs to get their hands on the final Vista code is 8 November. Allen noted that the delay meant that the promised delivery to volume customers ‘will barely make the end of November deadline’. Ever since the last major delay announcement Microsoft has stuck by its promise that it would deliver Vista to volume customers by the end of November.
At the time of writing Microsoft continues to assert that it is on track for the volume delivery in November and the consumer launch in January. However, any further delay because of unforeseen bugs would throw the timetable out completely.
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
