Pink slips aren't all Microsoft is giving out today. In what could go down as one of the most bittersweet moments in the company's history, news of the latest job cuts was accompanied by the public availability of the Windows 7 Release Candidate -- one of the final big milestones for a product that has the potential to revive Microsoft's flagship brand.

Here's the page for downloading the release candidate, with instructions and all the usual caveats about running pre-release software.

"From a features and capabilities point of view, Windows 7 is essentially done," writes ZDNet's Ed Bott in a review of the upcoming operating system. "It’s all over but the process of hunting down bugs, many of them associated with OEM hardware and drivers. In a bygone era, code this stable and well tested might have been released as a 1.0 product, followed six months later by a service pack. Not this year. Microsoft is treating Windows 7 as the world’s most ambitious shareware release ever."

Also see coverage by Paul Thurrott and BetaNews.

For the record, Microsoft still isn't saying when the finished version of Windows 7 will be released, and the company is facing increasing pressure to go public with the date. "With the release candidate for Windows 7 now publicly available, it's entirely reasonable for businesses and consumers to want to know when the final release will be available," CNet's Ina Fried writes today.

Previously: Microsoft confident, cautious as near-final Windows 7 is released and Windows 7's new backgrounds.