If you have not heard by now, Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system has been Released To Manufacturing (RTM). I'm not sure about you, but I am really looking forward to getting the complete version of Windows 7 on my laptop, which is just so much faster than Windows Vista.

Obviously, deployment strategies for the enterprise will differ depending on a company's strategic requirements and whether it has any legacy mission-critical applications that might be problematic. Still, with Windows 7 RC available for a while now, these are questions that should be more or less resolved. Of course, financial and hardware realities have a part to play as well.

In the meantime, this seems like as good a time as any to recap what we know about Windows 7 so far. For one, the D-Day that Windows 7 is scheduled to ship is October 22, which looks pretty much assured now that Windows 7 is RTM. Of course, it does appear that businesses will have a leg up, and volume licenses of Windows 7 will be available come September 1.

In terms of pricing, Windows 7 will generally be cheaper than Windows Vista for most editions, which I suppose is good news for folks upgrading. If you are holding back on your netbook purchase because of Windows 7 though, you need to be aware that Microsoft will be offering a crippled version of Windows 7 for netbooks. Of course, it is up to the manufacturers ultimately, to determine if they want to pay for a more expensive edition of Windows 7 to bundle with their netbook offerings.

Finally, folks keen on performance will be glad to know that Microsoft has optimized Windows 7 to run faster on SSDs, or Solid State Drives. That's all I have for now. In the meantime, feel free to share your company's migration strategy, if any, with us. - Paul Mah