Mr.Guvernment 0 Posted January 31, 2003 Hey all curious i am signed up and receiving the ms windows.net beta testing, but i was curious if there is more i can get??? more so, longhorn, since it is now on alpha 3686, i was curious is this windows.net 2 ? is what i have heard - the next version of Xp basically. If so, does anyone know of a place to sign up and receive it? I managed to get it from a friend *cough* - but it needs to be activated in 14 days - so i would rather go about it the legit way, and sign up for it to test it out... any info is appreciated. Share this post Link to post
adamvjackson 0 Posted January 31, 2003 Hmm, that's a tough one... You see, Windows 'Longhorn' isn't in beta yet, based off of my opinion(s) I suspect it will be in beta Q3-Q4 2003. In order to sign up for beta testing, you have to nominate yourself, usually by signing in as a guest at http://www.betaplace.com. Usually, there is a specific username/password that you must sign in as in order to nominate yourself. Where do you get the username/password, you ask? That's a good question... If you frequent many Microsoft-based news sites, as I do, the information is usually posted in the news sections. If anyone else knows of another way to get the username/passwords, please let us know! You stand the best chance of being accepted into a Microsoft beta program if you have actively done beta testing for them in the past. Actively, meaning that you did more than just install the release, you provided feedback, prehaps found a bug or two, etc. Personally, I just got accepted into my first Microsoft beta program, for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, so I'm a bit excited about that. The nominations for that were back in November and December, so I'm afraid that you can't be in that one, unless they reopen it. Best of luck, if you have more questions, just post... Adam Share this post Link to post
DosFreak 2 Posted January 31, 2003 I'm in the SMS beta. SMS 2.0 SP5 and SMS 2003. What adamvjackson is true. It also helps if you work for a big corporation. They are looking for people who work in those environments and that can provide results. Share this post Link to post
BladeRunner 0 Posted January 31, 2003 Unfortunately gone are the days when beta testers could get their hands on Alpha products. When I beta tested Windows 95 I had some very early alpha products and they were quite impressive to see. I think the reason behind this is that during the alpha stage the product does tend to be very flakey and they really aren't interested in any input - its broken and then know it! Once it hits beta that is a different story, the core coding is done and that is the point they will be looking for user input. Once you are rigistered you usually get invited back for further beta's. Since I beta tested Win95 there hasn't been a new OS that I haven't beta tested. What was also great was that MS sent me a free copy of the full retail version of WinXP Professional after it was released as a "thanks" which always makes you feel appreciated. Share this post Link to post
SHS 0 Posted February 1, 2003 I'm gald you like it BladeRunner They can keep there (WPA) Windows Product Activation thing I never buy in that junk in fact I drop out WinXP beta Share this post Link to post
BladeRunner 0 Posted February 2, 2003 *Shrugs* I don't know why anybody would want to beta test a new OS on their main machine. I have machines set aside at work in their own AD domain that are there just for beta OS's and the like. Installing a beta on a main machine is asking for trouble. As for product activation. I can live with it because it doesn't get in my way. 30 days before activation required, a major amount of hardware changes until reactivation and even if all that comes true activation takes 10 seconds online. Now if I was a thieving bastard then maybe I'd find it a problem, but as I am not then I say MS should not only continue to develop it but they should make it a lot more advanced. I'm thinking along the lines of every single "hot fix" and post release/post sp patch contining the code to search and destroy known compromised versions of the OS. Share this post Link to post
adamvjackson 0 Posted February 2, 2003 Isn't that the idea behind trusted computing...? I agree with you, with your opinions on activation. If there are people who refuse to pay for an operating system, there are alternatives, such as BSD, Linux, etc. That being said, I suspect that the people already using illegitimate copies of Windows will most likely not switch to BSD, Linux, etc. Share this post Link to post
