December CTP of Windows Vista due Monday

The man who breaks the news about Microsoft, Paul Thurrott, says his sources tell him that the release of December’s Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Vista will be on Monday.

Thurrott writes, “In various meetings with the Windows Vista team last week, I was told that the December CTP would be build 5276 give or take one build. … The company had originally planned to ship a public preview version of Windows Vista Beta 2 by the end of 2005, but that preview will likely be based on a future CTP build and will arrive in the first half of 2006.”

Rumors that Beta 2 had been scrapped in favor of monthly CTPs, appear to be discounted. Mud would be clearer.

In late December, Microsoft will test a feature-complete build of Windows Vista internally. That build will form the basis for the next CTP, due in January or February 2006. After that, the company will focus solely on bug fixes and fit-and-finish concerns, and won’t add any major new features to the product.