October 5 not far now and we STILL HAVE NO IDEA of the official release build number for the ISO from M$ that one can download. Normally by this time least the Build Number would be known by now. So this is new for Windows 11
If you were working for one of the major OEMs would you put your job on the line for this joke of an OS just to leak it to a forum? I wouldn't. Besides anything they do have will almost certainly come with a day one cumulative patch download anyway.
Nobody knows (officially) what build OEMs will ship their systems with, but as long as the new owner is connected during OOBE, it will be uptodate to the latest build at the moment it is running.
I wonder how large companies load Windows to computers. I have an image of hundreds of 12 year olds installing Windows one by one. They have a Hot Pocket in one hand and a mouse in their other hand.
You would like to think that the OEM's version would be at least stable enough so that display models in shops can run it without it glitching.???? Yes its guaranteed as soon as you get it, it will need an update. Maybe a disc/usb given to buying customers to run on purchase, (in case your not immediate on-line). Either way, one does wonder the build number, which we will find out soon enough.
They get the iso/img files shortly after ms compiles them because they need oems to help test them and report issues on their end. Besides the software issues, they need to know about hardware issues or complications. If it's just a driver issue or an actual hardware problem, they need time to sort it out. As far as the day one patch, hopefully it will just be non-critical stuff. I've said many times that whatever ships as a final version needs to have the major stuff already solved. Many people won't have internet access and thus will need the OS to work as intended. For minor issues, that's not the case. It's one thing if a minor bug like rounded corners not showing without proper driver installation or something. It's another if your entire taskbar doesn't work because of flawed programming. One issue is clearly not something you can ship with a final version of your OS. The other can be patched at any time and isn't really considered extremely important.
Not to mention that it auto updates to the latest version during setup, including drivers, I find it an amazing experience.
Microsoft has begun distributing a utility for future updates of compatible Windows 10 devices to Windows 11.