Windows Vista RC2 Available

GarstMan writes to mention that Microsoft has released what it hopes will be the last version of Windows Vista to go through the testing process. From the article: "This new build of Windows Vista offers users a higher level of performance and stability - improving what was established in Windows Vista RC1. We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2. Thank you to our beta testers for the bugs and feedback you submitted for RC1. The improvement shows as we raised our quality bar even higher! Platforms and Services Co-President Jim Allchin has just posted a special announcement letter of RC2 to Microsoft Connect for the Windows Vista Technical Beta Testers."

Comments

Not the last Beta

[rlp]

There will be a release candidate 3 Beta released as well. You'll just have to pay money for it in stores.

Re:Not the last Beta

[strider44]

There's a sub sandwich shop here that gives away free sandwich coupons every couple of months-- use as many as you want as often as you want. If you get addicted, you'll end up being their customer when it's no longer free.

The heroin they put in their sandwiches helps.

Link to ISO

[PixelJonah]

Here's the direct link to the 2552.6GBGB ISO image: Vista RC2 build 5744.

Re:Link to ISO

[Anonymous Coward]

2552.6 gigabytes squared? Who said Microsoft cannot come up with something novel.

Re:Link to ISO

[MonkeyBoy]

2.55TBs?!

Now that's some serious code bloat.

Offers users a higher level of performance ...

[Anonymous Coward]

offers users a higher level of performance and stability

ie: We added -DNDEBUG to the compiler command line.

here it is

[axonis]

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc2/en/do wnload.htm enjoy

2.5 Terrabytes?

[The Real Toad King]

Here's the direct link to the 2552.6GBGB ISO image: Vista RC2 build 5744

What? Did they encode it all in ASCII 0s and 1s?

Re:Schedules slip, milestones change meaning

[megaditto]

RTFA:

We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2.

Takes time to implement some good bugs, or else the users would not stay hooked to the "Patch Tuesday"/WGA

Bugs

[tawhaki]

We were able to also fix many of your bugs reported from RC1 and implement them for RC2.

I thought the bugs were already in RC1, why did they need to implement them again for RC2?

Re:Waste of Time

[cpt kangarooski]

Nobody likes DRM but it's neceassary evil.

It is not necessary; it's just evil.

Now, if there was standard DRM then books would be released electroically that you could search through or have search engines search through.

Actually, this is unlikely. And in any event, the benefit of making the book searchable is dubious given that the DRM could be used to limit your ability to search it, that searching isn't really important for some books (e.g. most works of fiction), and that the DRM could be set up so that it cost you money every time you used the book in particular ways, or at all.

I think that a better solution would be to a) prohibit authors et al from having copyrights if they use DRM at all, b) not just legalize circumventing DRM, but have the government help (with funding, coordination, and dissemination of the uncopyrightable plaintext), and c) to make some other alterations to copyright, such as beefing up deposit requirements (so that electronic copies are on file with the Library of Congress) and shortening term lengths (so that the book will enter the public domain quite rapidly, if the author et al even bothers to pursue copyright to begin with).

Don't be such a defeatist. Stand up for a change, and fight for what you want!

Perhaps this is asking for too much...

[GFree]

... but is there anyone on Slashdot who is NOT an evangelical geek who's tried one of the Vista RCs and has something useful to say about it? This joking/FUD is getting tiring.

For once I'd like to see an opinion from someone who tried Vista without any biases.

Give it a try before you trash it

[agressiv]

While I'm sure I'll get some fairly smart-ass responses to this post, most of you trashing Vista probably haven't even touched it. Sure, some of the comments are funny, but most of its mindless trolling. Its more of contest for a "+1 Funny" than anything else.

For those of you who have tried it (at least since RC1, everything before that was junk), and don't like it, then its not for you. Stick with whatever you have and move along. Your decision to not purchase Microsoft software will send a message.

For those of you haven't, give RC2 a try, its free - at least for about 8-9 months or whatever. You can then judge all its flaws and gasp, maybe even give feedback to Microsoft so that maybe they can do something about it. Just make sure you are constructive rather than "get rid of DRM" which probably won't accomplish much of anything.

agressiv