One previous report on the development of Windows 8.1 indicated that Microsoft was on track to reach the RTM development stage of its new operating system on August 23.
Redmond, these past few days was said to be making the final adjustments to the OS before it sends out the stable build to its OEM partners. And now a new report claims that work has just been completed.
In fact, Microsoft is expected to start providing OEMs with the final build in the next few hours.
A post on the Russian forum PCPortal reveals that Windows 8.1 RTM has been signed off a little while ago, which means that hardware partners are very likely to receive the operating system, anywhere between the next couple of hours, or the next few days.
The full build string of Windows 8.1 RTM is 6.3.9600.16384.winblue_rtm.130822-2140, according to these unconfirmed reports.
Microsoft is yet to release a statement on this matter, but chances are that it will soon.
Nevertheless, the software titan did announce at the BUILD developer conference in June that Windows 8.1 was on track to go RTM in August — and here we are, very close to the moment.
Timing is one thing which Microsoft has got spot on. August 24, 1995 was the day the company officially launched Windows 95. Sending off Windows 8.1 to RTM on the same day (18 years later, no less) would be a pretty neat way to celebrate one of its most popular operating systems.
End users are expected to get Windows 8.1 in October 18, the day the operating system upgrade would hit the shelves all over the globe.
