Question about VISTA

where are we with the emergence of vista? im assuming we're at the final product because i see it everywhere.

has vista been "finalized" and ready to be purchased?
or are they going to be rolling out a new "final" version of vista that will be ready to be sold.

and whats supposed to be coming up in like 2 weeks.? service pack or something?

im lost with this whole vista thing. i know. i've been under a rock past few weeks

RTM (release to manufacturing) was on Oct 25, and businesses got thier hands on it Nov 30th(?). General release to the public is Jan 30th.

Right now if you buy a copy of XP, you can get a free upgrade to a corrisponding Vista version, but you have till Jan 30.

technically, is the nov.30 release going to be the same as the jan. 30th release? or are changes being made and tweaked right before they release it on jan 30?

in other words, is the nov. 30 release like a "test" or "beta" (even thought it may not have been coined that or are they all going to be one and the same (just different release dates)

Vista was complete on Oct 25th, no updates to the install disk will be made. The DVD presses started getting disk images to make Vista. Businesses dont need 300 copys of Vista to install Vista on 300 computers, just a bulk lisence, so they can start getting copys. M$ is actually pressing, then shipping retail copys of Vista between Oct 25 and Jan 30.

If you buy Vista on Jan 30, your copy was made in Dec or eairly Jan.