Window 8 released to manufacturing, on schedule for October 26 release

Windows 8 has reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) milestone. Over the next few days, Microsoft’s OEMs will install Windows 8 RTM (build 9200) on a slew of upcoming laptops, ultrabooks, desktops, and tablets, and begin the difficult task of shoving bloatware down Metro’s throat until it’s just kilobytes away from exploding and splattering the world with primary-colored squares. Then, come October 26, Windows 8, OEM machines, and Microsoft’s own-brand Surface tablet, will be made available to the public.
If you’ve been using the Windows 8 Release Preview, the RTM will be very familiar except for two new features: The transparent Desktop Aero bits will be turned off and replaced with a very flat, white UI — and after the first-run setup process, there’s now a tutorial! Yes, afraid that the layman would struggle to find the new Start Screen Hot Corner Roll Over Tile Thing, Windows 8 will include a tutorial that teaches you a) how to swipe in from the side to reveal the Charms bar, and b) how to activate the various hot corners with your mouse.
In other news, the Windows Store is now accepting paid apps — and to add apps to the Windows Store, MSDN subscribers will receive a free copy of Windows 8 RTM on August 15. A free trial version of Windows 8 RTM will be made available through Microsoft TechNet, also on August 15. If you want to hold out for the actual release on October 26, remember that you’ll get a much cheaper price ($40!) if you install the Release Preview first. Also, if you bought a PC after June 2, you’ll be eligible for a $15 upgrade to Windows 8.

NASA's IBM 704. See that girl feeding punch cards into the computer? Metro with a mouse and keyboard is like that.

From this point on, Microsoft will be feverishly polishing Windows 8′s rough corners, which due to the rectilinear nature of the Metro Start Screen could take a while. For what it’s worth, we’ve actually been passing a Windows 8 tablet around the ET bunker — and the Metro interface really is fantastic on a touchscreen. It has even converted one one remaining iOS fan — no mean feat. In the words of one of our older writers, though, “Using the new Start Screen with a mouse and keyboard is more tiresome than hand-punching a stack of 80-column cards, and then feeding them into an IBM 704 with your feet.”