Software giant seems to have angered developers – Microsoft is reportedly insisting on delaying the launch of Windows 8.1 until mid October. Normally, the company would have an RTM(“release to manufacturing”) build of its software a few weeks before the code reaches the great unwashed, because this early availability allows developers to polish their product and testing so that their applications are available and working when the operating system launches.

However, now the company seems to become ill-famed due to messing up everything. Microsoft has confirmed that although Windows 8.1 has already reached the RTM milestone and been passed to computer- and tablet-making OEMs, it doesn’t mean that the subscribers to the Microsoft Developer Network will get the final code until the OS is officially launched on 17 October. Despite the fact that the RTM system has worked really well for a few decades, the software giant is now saying that it is better to keep the unfinished code out of the hands of its partners.

The industry experts are pointing out that Apple, unlike Microsoft, has never used RTM technique and never let its code out before it was ready. Apparently, Microsoft is banking on copying Apple today. Although Apple code normally ships buggy and doesn’t have the same amount of code available on the first day, at least you have secrecy on your side.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, in the old days software was ready for broader customer use, but those days have gone – it is clear that times have changed and so Microsoft’s strategy did. Or, maybe, Microsoft simply doesn’t want to repeat successful formulas anymore.

Of course, the app developers were unhappy with the decision after Microsoft told programmers to write and test their applications against Windows 8.1 Preview. The comments to the Microsoft decision compare the company’s world with the one inhabited by pink unicorns and pixie dust. However, in the real world software developers need access to the RTM bits before the official release of the product. The programmers are very surprised that Microsoft for some reason no longer seems to understand that.

Experts admit that it is unacceptable to code with the laggy Preview OS or wait for performance testing under RTM and just hope everything is fixed. Indeed, it is unfair that Microsoft can develop their apps to work on RTM code, while independent software vendors supporting Windows can’t.