Thanks Pit of 3DWin.de for this, As Launch day winds down, we do have one more internal email that was sent out to Beta testers on the (official) closure of the Windows XP Beta period. Future Windows versions have been sidetracked at this point, but Neowin can Exclusively reveal that key testers have already been contacted by Microsoft with assurance that they will recieve a developers preview of Windows "codenamed" Longhorn. There has been no date set for this release so stay tuned as we learn more. Below excerpts from the email.
The Next Beta Program(s)
As we move into new Windows beta projects, we'll be in touch with many of you as our experienced Windows beta testers to offer future opportunities to test Windows. At this time, we ask your patience in waiting for the appropriate programs.
Windows XP Service Pack 1
The next "client" (Windows XP Professional and Home Edition) beta program will focus on Service Pack 1 testing. Windows XP SP1 will involve many of the Home Edition and Professional testers from the Whistler/Windows XP beta program.
We will be sending more information on this sometime in early 2002. This is the next program you want to participate in if you're not doing enterprise server development or deployment work. If you want to apply to participate in this program, please do not send email to betareq or any other Microsoft email aliases at this time. Initial invitations will be solely based upon participants in the Windows XP beta program.
Longhorn, Blackcomb, or whatever codename-of-the-week on Web news sites
Who knows what future versions of Windows will be called during development.
In any event, there is no active beta program, and any program will initially be based on the above two programs (.NET Server and Windows XP SP1). Sending email to betareq or any other Microsoft alias at this time will not help make you a candidate for future beta programs.
The Next Beta Program(s)
As we move into new Windows beta projects, we'll be in touch with many of you as our experienced Windows beta testers to offer future opportunities to test Windows. At this time, we ask your patience in waiting for the appropriate programs.
Windows XP Service Pack 1
The next "client" (Windows XP Professional and Home Edition) beta program will focus on Service Pack 1 testing. Windows XP SP1 will involve many of the Home Edition and Professional testers from the Whistler/Windows XP beta program.
We will be sending more information on this sometime in early 2002. This is the next program you want to participate in if you're not doing enterprise server development or deployment work. If you want to apply to participate in this program, please do not send email to betareq or any other Microsoft email aliases at this time. Initial invitations will be solely based upon participants in the Windows XP beta program.
Longhorn, Blackcomb, or whatever codename-of-the-week on Web news sites
Who knows what future versions of Windows will be called during development.
In any event, there is no active beta program, and any program will initially be based on the above two programs (.NET Server and Windows XP SP1). Sending email to betareq or any other Microsoft alias at this time will not help make you a candidate for future beta programs.
Windows XP Launch
The public launch of Windows XP will be tommorrow: Thursday, October 25. Many of you may be attending the various events around the US. We're pleased that Windows XP will now be available to many more people. Along with the launch, we're providing some updates on the Windows Update site on the 25th - be sure to check for the latest updates.
Private Newsgroup and WindowsBeta server shutdowns
With the public launch, the private beta newsgroups for Windows XP will become read-only on the morning of Friday October 26, however we look forward to seeing many of you in future Windows beta test projects. We will also be taking this opportunity to completely shut down the beta web site (http://windowsbeta.microsoft.com) and download servers for hardware reconfiguration and upgrades. The website will be unavailable starting Friday October 26. These servers will be back online for future beta programs. We appreciate the community we have, and hope to see many of you in the future.
".NET Server Family Beta"
As many of you know, we will be starting the Windows .NET Server family beta in the near future. This limited beta will focus on driving the .NET Server family release to a robust, enterprise ready release. As a result, invitations to this beta will be sent primarily to those who plan to actively deploy servers in an enterprise level testing environment and to developers working on software for the Windows .NET Server family. This beta program is not generally applicable to home networks or individual testers in stand-alone environments, and is also not intended for evaluation or marketing purposes. If you work for or have an organization that you feel meets the requirements and would like to participate, please send a request to participate to betareq@microsoft.com with the subject line ".NET Server Beta request" and include a short explanation/justification that clearly explains the testing or development work
you're involved in or plan to be doing.
Complimentary Boxed Product Shipments
Many of you qualified to receive a complimentary boxed product of Windows XP.
The shipments to qualified beta sites have been delayed due to the high demand of Windows XP in the retail sector. We have been assured by manufacturing that the Windows XP Professional shipments should begin at the end of November and Home Edition should be shipped by late February of 2002. We apologize for the delay and hope that you will enjoy your complimentary boxed product when it arrives.
Again thank you very much for helping us produce Windows XP.
The Windows Beta Team.
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