Can someone clear up all of this talk about OEM, evaluation, retail, and RTM copies of WHS?

Over at the MS WHS forums defaultPlayer asked a question that a lot of people are getting confused about:

 Can someone clear up all of this talk about OEM, evaluation, retail, and RTM copies of WHS?

Fortunately theog came to the rescue. Are we paying attention?

OEM – Original equipment manufacturer: (aka “system builder“) is what we will purchase at newegg, ebuyer etc in the next week or so.

Retail: There will not be a retail version of WHS.  One main difference between OEM (system builder) and retail is that retail has official support from MS, OEM does not. For this reason OEM software is normally cheaper, but that does not apply here since there will not be a retail version of Windows Home server.

RTM: When they went from RC (release candidate), and sent a version to manufacturing, it is called RTM – Release To Manufacturing .  In other words, it is the “version” we will be using and a product Microsoft feels is ready for prime-time.

Evaluation: The WHS time bombed disk Microsoft will mail to you that will work for 120 days. Not available right now, but will be in the next few weeks.

Hopefully that has clarified what these abbreviations mean to those of you that were unsure and just in case WHS – Windows Home Server and MS – Microsoft.

For Now

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