There has certainly been enough speculation about when the Windows 7 Release Candidate code would actually be made available. Right here on DaniWeb we confidently predicted that the big day would be May 5th following a slip up, or more probably a deliberate leak for marketing purposes, on the Microsoft TechNet website. Well, we are now happy to say that we were both right and wrong after Brandon LeBlanc officially confirmed that the general public would be able to get hold of Windows 7 RC on May 5th. However, if you are a TechNet subscriber then you can grab a copy even sooner according to LeBlanc who stated on the Windows 7 Team Blog that "the RC is on track for April 30th for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers."

LeBlanc also reports that, at the peak of the beta tester feedback cycle, the Microsoft development team "were receiving a “Send Feedback” report every 15 seconds for an entire week." The fact that 84 percent of folk in one survey said no thanks to Windows 7 at least for the forthcoming year or so does not seem to have dampened the media hunger for Windows 7 news, nor for that matter the ability of the public to soak it up.

Of course, despite the recent court case and supposed closing down of The Pirate Bay it has still managed to beat Microsoft to a public release of Windows 7 RC which has been available via BitTorrent for a little while now in various release code guises. Microsoft has warned would be early downloaders not to be tempted by the BitTorrent option due to the possibility of malicious software being reverse engineered into the code.