Windows Vista Beta 2 canceled?

Paul Thurrott: Microsoft Mulls Canceling Windows Vista Beta 2

Not that I consider Paul Thurrott a particularly credible source but what is Microsoft's official stance on the release of Windows Vista Beta 2?

Back when many people expressed their disappointment with Beta 1, one of the responses from Microsoft people about Beta 1 was that the "beef" was going to be in Beta 2. Beta 2 release dates in the meantime have been slipping further into the future, and now there's speculation that they're going to cancel Beta 2?

What gives, Microsoft?

shooby wrote:

p.s. and I aint a troll, I do love attention, but theres always truth.

It's nice that you live in such an interesting little world, but we have no wish to join you in it. I'm nuking your recent posts that have zero information content. That's two so far.

shooby wrote:

that is what they pay you for, to cover up the truth.


LOL

Aint you proud?

I love you too

xx00

shooby

"The truth" does not consist of jumping into every thread on the front page and saying "Microsoft SUXX0RS, d00dz!". You can start adding some signal to that noise, or you can watch your repetitive posts being deleted (and then your account being nuked, and then after that your IP address being banned). Your choice. "LOL".

shooby wrote:

You mean, toe the Microsoft line?

Aint happening.

Every point the stock slips, I sip some fine Pinot.

Heres to your undoing.

LOL

Ok, so you hate Microsoft.  Ok, so you're an alcoholic.

Nobody's asking you to toe any line, except the line that involves not being a complete jerk in every thread you touch.

shooby wrote:

You mean, toe the Microsoft line?

Aint happening.

Every point the stock slips, I sip some fine Pinot.

Heres to your undoing.

LOL

What exactly have YOU contributed to the software world? Sipping Pinot and watching a stock dip low doesn't mean you know JACK about I/O, Indigo or Paul Thurrot.

Dig?

Well, yeah, that's why I was asking Microsoft for this information, not Paul Thurrott, but since even if you knew the answer (which you don't), you wouldn't share that information, I guess there's no credible source at Microsoft worth asking, is there?

So why the hell should I "stay tuned" again?

So there are no credible announcements at all about the release dates of Beta 2 then, everyone else?

I suppose they could always be honest and tell us they have no f'ing clue when it will be ready.  I'll settle for that over whining about people asking for release dates anyday.

Go read KC Lemson on why we don't talk about ship dates up front. summary: damned if you do, damned if you don't, so we pick the damned side with the least whiners.

Then you could go look at the top Microsoft theme story on Google News: the whole ">http://money.cnn.com/2005/11/30/technology/microsoft_vista.reut/&hl=en"> next Vista CTP / next Vista beta discussion, covered by 81 different news outlets. Plus lots of quotes from corporate VP Amitabh Srivastava. That's your credible announcement.

And a prediction - I'm betting that you'll see a lot more "shock horror" news stories from Paul Thurrott over the next six months. Discussions about Vista are going mainstream, and there's no longer much to differentiate his news stories from anyone else's. One tried-and-true technique is to pump up the hype level.

Maybe Paul Thurrott has some inside sources?

Mini Microsoft perhaps? As i recall he has access to release dates through the intranet sites at MS.

If it is canceled/delayed, are you really that surprised?

Not me.

If you're looking to take a great leap in terms of SECURITY, and usability....

and there are no delays i would be concerned.

Takes time when you want to do it right.

Sorry to steer the thread off course a bit, but what is the story behind Thurrott anyways? Did Bill he get hit by Bill Gates car one rainy afternoon, and rather than accepting a cash settlement he took access to all Microsoft pre-release products? What makes him more special than you or me?

The Roadmap is good, and ship dates is so bad, Intel knew it, Google knew it, and the whole world knew it, only my boss doesn't know.

There is a sensibility to this story, though.

Traditionally, with Alpha and Beta releases, the increment would match each official release.  So, in Beta, you'd have the first Beta called "Beta 1", the second code release being "Beta 2", etc.

By going through the CTP route, Microsoft hasn't done that.  They had Longhorn Beta 1, and then every release after that has been marked Vista Beta 2.  Microsoft could increment the Beta version number with each of these "monthly CTP" code drops.  So, by choosing another naming convention, we could be on Vista Beta 4 by now, or more.  Its semantics.

The other reason this is credible is that Microsoft have blurred the traditional definition of what is Beta and what is Release Candidate.  If Microsoft keep these CTP drops until it is "Feature Complete" and then it is strictly debugging and optimisation during the RC stage, then effectively the headline is true:  there would be no version of Vista that was the definitive Beta 2 because the CTP of Beta 2 was incremental, and then the next Fixed Version was the first of the release candidates.  Seems an entirely sensible thing to me, just worded by Thurrott in a sensational way.

leighsword wrote:

The Roadmap is good, and ship dates is so bad, Intel knew it, Google knew it, and the whole world knew it, only my boss doesn't know.

Can you translate KC Lemson's article for your boss?

"And there was much rejoicing."

jonathanh wrote:

leighsword wrote:The Roadmap is good, and ship dates is so bad, Intel knew it, Google knew it, and the whole world knew it, only my boss doesn't know.

Can you translate KC Lemson's article for your boss?

That's a good idea, sometime I hope there is a role like Scoble in my company, we as a programer to say something like this which is not good, because boss would guess what the purpose of us, and may doubt our ability of programming, business is always business, their thinking is differ from developers.

Beta 2?  Whatever.

When is the next Vista CTP build that matches the RTM'd .Net Framework 2.0 going to be released?

The WinFX guys released a November CTP that allows me to use VS 2005 RTM.  When's the rest of the Vista team going to catch up?

Use linux and you wont have this much buzz.

Hehe, kidding.
- Steve