Last month on the date, Microsoft’s TechEd conference was held in New Orleans. It was attended by over 11000 tech reporters and experts who were eager to hear the new technological developments by Microsoft. In that conference, Microsoft announced that the beta version of Windows7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 service pack 1 will be available in the mid of July. From the earlier experience it can be easily claimed that new service pack will bring developments in security and bug fixing. As this service pack 1 is about to hit the market, Microsoft is sending invitations to the testers all over the world.
Invitations indicate that beta bits will be available in 5 different languages. It includes English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish. It can be clearly seen that Microsoft is much more interested in experts from Europe. There are chances that these packs will be released in the Worldwide Partner Conference that is about to begin in mid-July in Washington. There is rumor that these beta versions will be available in Q4 2010 but it is not yet confirmed by Microsoft.
Microsoft officials have said that they are not going to add any new features in the beta version of Windows7 SP1 but there will be set of fixes. On the other hand, 2008 R2 will include bug fixes and couple of new features. When Microsoft took over Calista Technologies in 2008, they obtained desktop-remoting technology then. New feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will include new graphic acceleration platform named RemoteFX that is based on same technology. Another new feature will be Hyper V that has capability to dynamically adjust the virtual machine on demand.
Microsoft is not ready to take any risk in case of Windows7 and thus they have invited only those testers which have previously worked with Microsoft for testing purpose. Invitation clearly includes that qualitative feedback provided for earlier versions of Windows by testers has been considered while inviting them. This team of tester will work with Microsoft release team hand in hand. Together efforts will contribute in the release of Windows7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 that is scheduled in the upcoming days. However, invitation indicates that SP1 version is not yet ready but Microsoft team is gathering programmers in advance to avoid further delay.
If participated, tester is going to get access to the downloadable versions of the beta Service Packs. They will also able to communicate with the private newsgroups. They can report bugs and track them but bug reporting is required in English language strictly. Microsoft is continuously saying that customers need not wait to install latest version of Windows client till the arrival of SP1. If you can remember Microsoft claimed same in case of Windows Vista when they were about to release beta version then. In the past it use to be scenario that businessmen used to wait for SP1 which was considered milestone then but after the failure of Vista the picture has been completely changed. Hope these new versions of SP won’t disappoint customers.
