Maybe not as monumental as Charles Kurault or Phish, but Windows x64 has logged many a mile in the past months. If you haven’t see the show in person, there’s still five more U.S. cities left in the AMD/Microsoft Tech Tour. The stop in Jersey is dear (not so near anymore) to me since I was born in East Brunswick. Good bowling balls, I’m told. As you’ll see on the reg site, if you haven’t signed up yet you’re not assured of a Desktop/Server promo bundle. The discounted bundles include the 64-bit Athlon and Opteron chips in combination with 64-bit versions of XP and Windows Server 2003. I hear several thousands signed up for the bundles and will get them. For newbies, the official line is “we’re working hard to get more bundles into the pipeline for those who still wish to reserve one.” But Volker points out that supplies are replenished.
And from the sounds of it, many folks already kicked the tires and drove x64 at the Route64 roadshow. These shows recently wrapped up, with 21 events in 12 different countries and more than 500 developers. The labs helped developers migrate existing 32-bit native apps to 64-bit Windows, and change/migrate managed code to work on 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. I’m told that 10%+ of attendees completed a migration at the lab.
If you missed out on Route64, and you’re an ISV or integrator partner, keep an eye out for a new Windows x64 Fastlane Kit for Partners. I got my hands on it today – I’m told it’s been distributed at a channel partner summit, and will be distributed at Worldwide Partner Conf next week and at some upcoming ISV roadshows. The kit contains WinXP x64 (180-day eval), WinServer x64 Enterprise (FPP) and Windows x64 Editions resource CD.
Patrick O’Rourke