what will happen to these vista builds when the proper version comes out???

will they still work???

or will microsoft some how stop them from working making you have to go out and pay for a full version?????

 

They will still work if you already have it installed and activated already. But if you go and try to install beta 2 after the final is released and you go to activate it it may give you problems.



But ya never know what they will do. Im pretty sure you will still be able to use it tho. There isnt a good way for them to find out if your using it or not anyways once you've activated it.

 

let hope so, will be a shame if after its released you need to re-install vista and it turns out they have blocked your serial code :w00t:

only time will tell eh....

 

I just received and installed the Beta 2 DVD yesterday (haven't had time to play around with it, though).The insert says that the program won't work after June 1, 2007.

 

Interesting...Good Find. Even if its true you still get a year or so with it I guess.

 

oh thats poo... you would have thought that the people using it would be able to keep using it... and for the people that paid for the beta version like your self, dont you feel you have been slightly done, by having paid for it only for it to stop working after a year.....

so there making money out of us with the beta version only to make more money from us when the final release comes out and we have to start all over again.....

 

Well I dont think he paid for it. You can sighnup on the vista site to have it sent to you on a DVD, its free of charge. Its an alternative to downloading it for free.

 

when i went to the site to download it, there was also a link to get it on dvd and that was at a cost of £10 if i remember correctly..

 

I duno, I always thought it was free because ms was encouraging it because of hte high download demand.

 

There's a $10 charge"to cover DVD production, shipping, and handling costs." The charge also includes the RC1 DVD when it's ready to ship. Do I feel ripped off? No. It was my choice to pay rather than tying up my connection for the length of time it would have taken me to download Beta 2 now, and RC1 later.

 

well when you up it like that, i see your point.....

i know this is gonna sound daft but whats the RC1 :blink:

 

"Release Candidate 1", which MS says on the Vista site is "the next major pre-release". I'm guessing it's a fancier name for "Beta 3" .

 

cheers mate, any news on when this is coming out.. or is it just a case of waiting of microsoft to send an email out to everyone.....

 

The Vista site just says "later this year", but I read somewhere else (I can't remember where just now) it will be released in August -- thought that might have been a guess. If you downloaded Beta 2, you'll get an email telling you RC1 is available. If you bought the CD, they will ship it to you. That's my understanding, anyway.

 

From Wikipedia "The term release candidate refers to a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge. In this stage, the product features all designed functionalities and no known showstopper class bugs. At this phase the product is usually code complete."



Mostly it goes:



Alpha Stage - Adding new features and writting code

Beta Stage - Debuging code

Release Canidate - More testing but no more major bugs/all code is complete.



The final product is usually almost identicle to the release canidate except for a few minor fixes last minute.

 

Thanks for the clearup, Jason. I may have mentioned before that this is my first Beta experience. I'm not familiar with the terminologies.

 

No Problem.

 

jason your knowledge amazes me every time.....

 

For those in the Friends and Family portion of the beta testing (people invited by a closed-beta member), I believe Microsoft will be supplying a copy of Vista at lower-than-retail cost, which can be installed over their currently-existing build. While Beta 2 is build 5384, they released another build shortly after to allow this.

For those just participating in the open beta, this won't be an option, though you still have the chance to purchase a copy of Vista in stores and install it. The idea was that for us open-beta users, we fully understood that this was a "try-it" scenario and that we weren't honestly expecting to carry this OS indefinately. The closed beta members, however, were in it for the long haul; as they had Vista installed as their new primary OS, they're looking to make it easier to just keep Vista as their permanent operating system, thus the upgrade at little or no charge to long-term beta testers.

As far as I know, the open beta installs won't last once Vista goes gold.

 

Sorry to bring up an old post, but this is the first time I've seen this mentioned. You say that the $10 charge for ordering the Vista Beta 2 (build 5384) DVD set also includes the RC1 DVD when it's ready??? I ordered the Beta 2 DVD set when it first became available, and I've seen nothing so far that says I will get RC1 when it's available. Angus, I'm curious as to where you saw this info and if you can point me to where I can confirm it.



Thanks!!



BTW, I'm new to this Vista forum, so Hello all!