{"id":6063,"date":"2005-08-31T16:35:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-31T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2022-08-29T16:52:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T23:52:29","slug":"what-is-the-significance-of-the-rc-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/blog\/2005\/08\/31\/what-is-the-significance-of-the-rc-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Significance of the RC milestone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A really good question came my way this week:\u00a0 What is the Significance of the RC Milestone?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of our product milestones (Beta, RC, etc.) are publicized as a march forward toward the final release of a product – \u00a0But what is the significance\u00a0of <\/span>each of these milestones?\u00a0 What do our customers need to know about them?\u00a0 As I started to do my research for a blog entry, I came across a great<\/span> article by Greg DeMichillie with Directions on Microsoft that does an excellent job of explaining our Product Development Milestones and the general development <\/span>process at Microsoft.<\/p>\n

So what is the significance of an RC Milestone?\u00a0\u00a0 The above article sums it up quite nicely:<\/p>\n

The last steps toward the final release of a product are Release Candidates (RCs). As its name implies, an RC is a build of the product that Microsoft believes is good enough to be shipped and wants to verify. Verifying an RC involves final testing by the product\u2019s quality assurance (testing) team as well as distribution to key customers.<\/em><\/p>\n

By the time a product reaches the RC stage, no further changes are contemplated, except those required to fix extremely serious “show-stopping” bugs. Other changes, including fixes for less severe bugs, are likely to be deferred until a later release or the first service pack. Customers evaluating an RC release can therefore expect very few changes between it and the final build. This makes RC builds appropriate for final performance and scalability evaluations.<\/em><\/p>\n

As with beta releases, product groups occasionally release RC builds that were obviously not ready for shipment. The RC builds of BizTalk 2004, for example, lacked product documentation. Many customers assumed this was an oversight and were dismayed to find out that the final version of the product contained no documentation and that documentation would be gradually posted to Microsoft\u2019s Web site after the product shipped.<\/em><\/p>\n

So if you are looking to evaluate Windows Server 2003 R2 for use in your organization, the time to look at testing it is now. You can download the RC0 build, as well a an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2003 SP1 for testing from here: http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windowsserver2003\/R2\/trial\/default.mspx<\/a><\/p>\n

– Ward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A really good question came my way this week:\u00a0 What is the Significance of the RC Milestone? 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