Vista Beta2: More than 100,000 bugs September 6, 2006
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Beta 2 was widely panned after its release last June, with many testers feeling there was no chance Microsoft (Quote, Chart) would meet its year-end deadline. Fast forward three months and more than 100,000 bug reports later. RC1 is in considerably better shape, according to testers.
“Beta 2 was a big disappointment in many ways,” Paul Thurrott, editor of WinSuperSite.com, told internetnews.com. “I don’t think it was the right thing to hand out to the public. A lot of people had a bad reaction to it.
Vista Pricing Official September 6, 2006
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The Windows Vista Enterprise edition is only available to Microsoft Volume License customers, so it has no retail price. Windows Vista Business, which fills the slot for Windows XP Professional, will retail for $299.00 for the full version and $199 for the upgrade.
For the home user, there are three choices. The stripped-down Vista Home Basic will sell for $199 for the full package or $99 for the upgrade. Vista Home Premium, the closest thing to Windows XP Home Edition, will be $239.00 for the full version or $159.00 for the upgrade.
Finally, there’s Vista Ultimate, which combines the features of Home Premium and Business, for a hefty $399.00 for the full edition or $259.00 for the upgrade.
RC1 was released to technical customers on TechNet last Friday, but Microsoft plans to offer it to a wider audience later this week through its Vista Customer Preview Program (CPP), which was used to test Beta 2. Microsoft plans to make RC1 available to more than five million customers for testing.
.Net 3.0 Also Reaches RC Status September 6, 2006
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Vista isn’t the only Microsoft technology that has reached Release Candidate condition. The .NET Framework 3.0 has also reached the final leg of development, although unlike Vista, anyone can download it. .NET 3.0 was formerly known as WinFX. It combines the four technologies in WinFX with .NET 2.0. The four technologies that comprise .NET 3.0 are Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows CardSpace, formerly Infocard.
Microsoft plans to ship .NET Framework 3.0 with Vista, but it will be backwards compatible with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
