It’s the hour of reckoning for Windows Vista.
After five years of course changes, false starts and a host of beta and CTP (Community Technology Preview) builds, Microsoft is set to deliver a broad-scale build of Vista to two million testers.
Microsoft is likely to drop the build—known by multiple names, including the consumer Vista CTP and Vista Beta 2—as early as
(Around the same time, Microsoft also is likely to release Office 2007 Beta 2, the next major milestone of Microsoft’s next-generation desktop suite, as well as Beta 2 of Longhorn Server.)
While the exact Vista release date is fluid, the facts are not—this cut of Vista needs to be more solid than a year’s worth of previous builds from Microsoft.
Even the most recent Vista builds, including two interim CTPs delivered during the past couple of months to the company’s squad of elite beta testers, known as TAP (Technology Adoption Program) partners, have suffered from a variety of performance and compatibility problems, according to interviews with eight testers.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Vista’s Make or Break Moment
