While Microsoft previously announced that Technet and Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers would not get early access to Windows 8.1 RTM, it changed its mind. Microsoft reverted its previous decision to make Windows 8.1 RTM available to Technet and MSDN subcribers only on the official release like all other customers and them available for download immediately.
Besides Windows 8.1 RTM, the company also made available Visual Studio 2013 Release Candidate and Windows Server 2012 RTM to subscribers of both services.
At the end of August this year Microsoft announced that the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 8.1 would not be released early on Technet and MSDN. Subscribers interested in the release would have to wait till the official release, scheduled at the 18th of October. The update to Windows 8 was shipped early to PC manufacturers and a select group of Windows 8 app developers.
Microsoft received lots of criticism to the decision from the developer community and yesterday changed it mind. Both Windows 8.1 RTM Core and Pro have become available now to MSDN and Technet subscribers who are now able to test the software before the official release. Enterprise versions of Windows 8.1 RTM will become available at the end of this month, Microsoft stresses that the RTM versions are not the final versions.
Since yesterday, Microsoft also offers the RTM version of Windows Server 2012 R2 and the release candidate of Visual Studio 2013 for download to MSDN and Technet subscribers. In June Microsoft already released a preview version of Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter.
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