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Windows Vista RC1 Complete
alienfluid writes to mention that RC1 of Windows Vista is now complete. This 'nearly complete' version of the operating system is already available to beta testers, and will be available to everyone else soon. From the article: "You'll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2. We've made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We're not done yet, however -- quality will continue to improve. We'll keep plugging away on application compatibility, as well as fit and finish, until RTM. If you are an ISV, RC1 is the build you should use for certifying your application."
And it still has the ridiculus mandatory driver signing, forcing freeware/open source developers to shell out $500 for a certificate if they want to make drivers that work on x64. All for their precious trusted computing. Wouldn't want those evil x64 criminals installing drivers to rip hd-dvds would they?
Beta 2 is available to everyone...
From microsoft.com: "Thank you for your interest in Windows Vista. The Customer Preview Program is now closed. We have reached our program capacity and no new orders are being accepted. We apologize for any inconvenience."
It looks like a limited number of beta testers for the beta and for the RC, not "everyone."
> RC's are usually versions that have all the core functionality implemented and are ready for testing.
No, that is called a beta version. RC = Release Candidate means what it means. If no new problems are found by the testers, it will be the final release, or so it should be. RC version doesn't need to be bug free, but it shouldn't have any bugs that are marked as stoppers of the final release.
That reminds me of when I was working at Actiontec and I'd be working on authoring a hybrid "Gold Master" release to go off to the duplicator for 100,000 copies, and then marketing would come down the hall and have some text changes and image changes 5 minutes before the FedEx guy was going to show up, 60 minutes before FedEx closed. I'd then have to manually insert these files (then rework CVS from the changes they had me put into the tree I had checked out), and this was "Golden Master R2". So, somebody would literally be waiting with a car ready to speed off to the nearest FedEx center to hand-deliver the CD to them for shipping. Then Marketing would come back and say "SHIT! We forgot something blatantly obvious that was decided 30 minutes ago between me and another clueless top-dog suits!! I'd have to author hybrid CD Golden Master R3 and upload the ISO to them, and they'd be finished downloading it before they even received Golden Master R2 from over-night FedEx. But an ISO wasn't enough, they also needed 5 copies of Golden Master R3 over-nighted too. Then the project would be put on hold for 2 months because of a hardware issue, which would give everybody time to slip in more fixes for the "New Golden Master", and the cycle would repeat. I tried to explain the principle of the release canidate, but they wouldn't hear it. Snafu, I tell you. I sure don't miss those days.