No Vista Beta 2 this year

The second beta of Windows Vista will not come until next year, Microsoft said Tuesday.

The software maker did not give a time frame for the release of Beta 2 of the operating system, and said only that it would have more to say next year. Microsoft had not said when Beta 2 will come, but some had expected it might come in December or January.

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Microsoft Windows V.P. Amitabh Srivastava. His team relies on internal and external user feedback.
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Microsoft did say it still plans to release the final version of Vista in the second half of next year.

"First and foremost, we are still on track for general availability in the second half of calendar year 2006," said Amitabh Srivastava, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Windows unit.

Microsoft also said Tuesday that it will end the monthly schedule for interim Community Technology Preview updates of the Vista code. The third CTP release, planned for November, now will not happen until December, it said.

The company offered up the first of the community technology previews in September at its Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. Monthly updates were promised, and an updated version was released in October. A more traditional test release, Beta 1, was issued in July.

Microsoft has not used CTPs with past operating systems, instead relying on a couple of beta releases. The software maker has used CTP releases with other products, such as its Visual Studio developer tools software.

Srivastava said that the feedback Microsoft is getting from the CTP releases makes the timing of the next beta less critical. "The Beta 2 is still an important milestone for broad customer testing, but it is less urgent," he said.

He added that by shifting away from a monthly CTP release schedule, Microsoft hopes it will be able to more quickly add in new features. "The changes we are making will provide a feature-complete Windows Vista to our customers sooner," Srivastava said.

He reiterated that Microsoft plans to continue having frequent, if not monthly, CTP releases. "They are going to be often."

Microsoft also reiterated its plans to deliver the server companion to Vista, code-named Longhorn Server, in 2007.

[Higher750]

How is this news?

The message from Microsoft has always been that Beta 2 for Vista would come in early 2006. How is this a surprise or worthy of an entire article?

[scdecade]

The boy who cried worlf?

Because the timetable has stopped slipping?

[thedreaming]

Filler

They had nothing else to report and the probably needed a story about vista.

[msims]

A simple contridiction dear Watson.

Its a contridiction. The past articles on the public Windows Vista Beta 2 were actually meant for the earlier CTP releases first introduced at the WinHec 2005 conference which were only distributed to developers and OEM shops.

Yes Vista Beta 2 will be made availiable for the general public by January 2006 we hope. ;)

A simple contridiction my dear Watson, a simple contridiction.

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The message from Microsoft has always been that Beta 2 for Vista would come in early 2006. How is this a surprise or worthy of an entire article?