the bits have left the building

We've reached the last milestone in the release of Office 2008: Release to Manufacturing (RTM). The bits have left the building, and are on their way to manufacturing plants around the world to begin to make our DVDs. Then, come Macworld Expo, you can walk into your friendly local Apple retailer and buy your very own copy.

The lead-up to RTM has been weird for me. I haven't experienced a Microsoft RTM before, so I don't know if this is normal. The team has been heads-down on beating the bugs into submission. Then, a release candidate is identified. Everyone seems to tiptoe around the hallways as it is determined whether this release candidate is THE release or not. We let the release candidate bake for a couple of days (which actually means that our test team is absolutely pounding at it — you can tell that whoever started calling it 'baking' has never actually baked anything, since a cake would fall if it was pounded like this!) and then declare it final if there are no showstoppers. I'm sure that the MacBU collective sigh of relief was heard 'round the world when we made it.

What's next? Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm on vacation starting in a few hours. :) Of course, we're going to be at Macworld Expo to launch Office 2008. I haven't been able to convince the marketing team to let me in on the secrets of launch yet. Sheridan, our lovely marketing manager, just gives me a knowing smile and says, 'it's gonna be big'. I do know that MacBU will be out in full force at MWSF, staffing the booth and showing off Office 2008, and there's a big party scheduled too. Make sure you swing by and have a chat with us!