Windows 7 retail boxes begin surfacing in stores

PC-PAL reads at www.neowin.net  that Windows 7 is getting very close to being available to the general public.
Windows 7 is Microsoft's latest and most highly anticipated Operating System, which has been the center of attention since Microsoft started sharing about it around this time last year at PDC. In January, Microsoft had an official public beta of build "7000" which had at least 2.5 million users attempt to download it in the first 24 hours of the beta being open, which crippled their download servers and brought TechNet to a crawl. In May, Microsoft made the Release Candidate, Build "7100", available to the public through until 20th August, stating that this version Windows 7 would be free for "6 months" if you continued to use the RC until it expired. This build had over 100 fixes and tweaks that Microsoft had provided thanks to testers feedback. On 6th August, Microsoft made available the RTM code, Build "7600", of Windows 7 to Technet/MSDN users, and general availabilty on October 22 marks the final phase of Windows 7's release.