According to Reuters, Windows 7 will be generally released on October 22. Still no official pricing though.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0235338320090602
Microsoft is getting serious about hooking users to Windows 7 - RC free until next May.
http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=16472651
ZDnet did a performance shootout between Windows 7 beta vs build 7048 vs Vista vs XP; not quite apples to apples since they compared 32 bit Vista and XP to Windows 7 64 bit, but still an interesting read.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3789&tag=nl.e589