Expect multiple Longhorn beta releases

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From Paul Thurrott:

"I've heard from several sources now that there will be "multiple" Longhorn beta releases which, to me, casts more doubt on a late 2005 release date than any of the other claptrap I've read online. This would be a departure from previous Windows versions, which tend to have several alpha milestone releases and then two or three beta releases, followed by a small number of release candidate builds. Microsoft's John Montgomery, the Director of the company's Developer Division told me that Longhorn Beta 1, due in summer 2004, will be developer focused, but huge, with tens of thousands of managed testers and millions of external testers. Beta 2 (ETA unknown, but I'm expecting it in the first half of 2005) will be more consumer focused, with better fit and finish, and a near-final user experience (which I take to mean this is the beta release where we'll finally get Aero). Regarding those who are testing build 4051, Microsoft is considering doing a post-alpha longhorn SDK drop, based on feedback, which would necessitate a new alpha build release before Beta 1. That's something I'd really like to see happen; it's a long time 'till summer 2004."

News source: WinInfo Short Takes

Improvements:
* improved Winamp meter (can show numerical data such as track position, bitrate etc)
* DEFAULT_CHARSET for non-ascii languages
* shift-resizing (preserving aspect ratio) in config editor
* 1x1 pixel minimum meter size
* X,Y, width,height for graphic objects
* any single-click activates meter linkage
* 24hr analog clock formatting option (%hh)
* ActiveScripts more resilient to being configured wrong
* Certain hotkeys prevented from being used (Caps Lock, Scroll Lock...)
* Additional language fields (see LanguageChanges.txt)

#1 AquaDex on 22 Nov 2003 - 08:11

woo-hoo! Longhorn Beta will be an external Beta as well!! yee-ha!

#2 werejag on 22 Nov 2003 - 08:48

from pual thurrott!!!!

enough said

#3 kainashi on 22 Nov 2003 - 13:06

maybe it won't be as bug filled as previous windows versions then.

(4 replies) #4 TripleDES on 22 Nov 2003 - 13:40

wow, what the hell is that for a sort of bs thurrott talks? till now, each windows versions had "multiple betas". what's so newsworthy to what he said?!

besides that, the external beta is just a mean to get people used to longhorn. marketting ploy that has a side effect of generating more bug reports lol

#4.1 MR_Candyman on 22 Nov 2003 - 14:07

exactly what I came here to say my man, but ya beat me to it

#4.2 neostyle on 22 Nov 2003 - 16:43

QUOTE (#4.0)

what's so newsworthy to what he said?!

maybe because the offical roadmap counts 2 betareleases ?

#4.3 TripleDES on 22 Nov 2003 - 21:00

so? windows 2000 and xp had also multiple beta releases? as win95 and win98 did too?

#4.4 briangw on 22 Nov 2003 - 21:08

I was going to say that, however, XP and 2k had many more beta releases than Win98 and 95 ever had.

(2 replies) #5 xStainDx on 22 Nov 2003 - 14:05

Longhorn is just one big soap-opera. My god all the drama.

#5.1 Xeon™ on 22 Nov 2003 - 15:07

AMEN! i really, couldnt care less until 'longhorn' reaches retail-RTM state..

#5.2 Joshie on 22 Nov 2003 - 17:30

Holy crap! Somebody who used the "couldn't care less" expression correctly!

*dies*

#6 oDD on 22 Nov 2003 - 14:26

QUOTE

Expect multiple Longhorn beta releases

**** I could have told you that.

#7 Stingray on 22 Nov 2003 - 15:35

I´m always hearing about this Paul Thurrott AND Microsoft. Who´s he, Microsoft´s official parrot?

(notice the pun)

(7 replies) #8 MitchShrader on 22 Nov 2003 - 15:45

bleh. Upgrade WHAT? Rebuild the wheel? $ per day sez fuggedabout it. *I* dont need 4 gigahertz comps to do word, fa'gawdsake, OR 64 bit computing. Gimme a 5 year OS and hardware.Embed the OS in the mobo with an office suite option. A full OEM package, (sound, 64meg video, usb2, nic, modem) 2 gig barton proc and a gig o ram on it, hook up ya hard drive, cdrw/dvdrom and floppy and plug in the monitor & power. This hype is pointless for 90% of the world market. It's about transition downtime, fresh bugs and wasted bucks. MS got their monopoly on compatiility, and they're keeping it on INCOMPATIBILITY. I'll do lunix if i gotta upgrade. billy's rich enough.

#8.1 Daybreak on 22 Nov 2003 - 15:53

Not to nitpick, but you really need to improve your spelling, grammar and punctuation. Had a hard time reading that.

#8.2 JaggedFlame on 22 Nov 2003 - 16:40

You don't have to upgrade. Where the hell have you been for the last year when they were describing the Tier system?

#8.3 Stingray on 22 Nov 2003 - 16:47

I agree.

#8.4 markjensen on 22 Nov 2003 - 17:18

I agree with the opinion that "forced upgrades" are entirely an illusion for home users. There is precious little that you need the 'latest and greatest' Windows for, unless you are a really into having all of the latest bells and whistles.

For businesses, it is a bit more real, when other corporations start upgrading, there is a bit of pressure to maintain compatibility.

Unless you are a sysadmin, I really wouldn't worry about something that isn't here yet. Use what works best for you: Win 3.11, 98, XP, MacOS, Linux, whatever.

#8.5 JaggedFlame on 22 Nov 2003 - 17:26

The thing is that you still can use Longhorn without having to upgrade your system. That's the whole point of the multi-tiered system.

#8.6 Mav Phoenix on 22 Nov 2003 - 19:12

Upgrading now is purely by will not by necessity, get over yourself and your bad grammar, you don't impress anyone with your anti-MS sentiment.

#8.7 markjensen on 22 Nov 2003 - 20:01

Agreed on that.

It's one thing to be pro-Linux, or pro-MacOS... but there is *no* reason to post anti-MS (or anti-anything) stuff here. It does no good.

Windows is the best OS for some people and some apps. As many individuals as there are, there will be different needs.

I better send this before we all join hands and sing Kumbaya (or however it's spelled)

(3 replies) #9 GamblerFEXonlin on 22 Nov 2003 - 22:49

yeah, i mean, windows is okay and all, and micros~1 are just doing their best. complaining and whining all day dont work either, lets bend over and have a nice cup of shut the fck up.

now hold on while i reinstall windows XP for the 3rd time this month, i really love the feeling of "fresh clean install," thanks microsoft.

yeah i got 1 gig of ram and more resources any of these weak low-poly games can fill so I just install picture publisher and norton antivirus which combined writes more then 2000 keys in the registry.

#9.1 sullysnet on 23 Nov 2003 - 01:13

you must be doing something wrong I have been on the same version of XP now for 3 years and this is not a lie, only one time I repaired it from drivers issues and it is rock solid. I play games and the whole bit I have cleaned out my registery and screwed around with it enough to warrent and reload but have always come out clean. This is by far the best windows ever but still could use some more work

XP I mean

#9.2 markjensen on 23 Nov 2003 - 01:37

My wife's XP has been running with only a minimum of problems (owned it for one year). Just like with Linux, there are success stories and horror stories with drivers, DLLs, dependencies, and hardware compatibility on both Operating Systems. Individual cases of success and failure are personally meaningful to the user involved, but are statistically irrelevant.

That said, it is generally said that Linux has a steeper learnign curve for installing and config (where Linux users see the most headaches), but a lot smoother run when it is set up than Windows does. And XP has come a long way from the older Microsoft OSes. My experience has shown this to be true - but, as I just said a second ago - is statistically irrelevant.

One thing I can point out, is that since I have switched from Windows to Linux, I am much more aware of disussion of Windows problems in the casual conversations of co-workers and strangers.

#9.3 sullysnet on 24 Nov 2003 - 22:38

cool this is very true I use both XP on my workstation side and Linux on my Sparc 10 and a P3800 Linux box. THe P3 runs Samba for file sharing and just simple kicks a-- so I know that Linux is more stable. Learning curve to me was no different then on Windows just need to spend some time with it load an GUI like Windowmaker and just stick with the command line to get a better feel for it and BIG BIG thing on all all OS's is learning the directory structure this was key for me what I I learn. With XP as my workstation and Linux as my server I just strut along with little issues. Drivers are the biggest issue with all windows OS's has been and will continue to be.