Windows 2000 Beta 3 running late
By Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rt Reseller
April 15, 1999 5:13 PM ET
As it has throughout its life, Windows 2000 is running late.
This time, it's the third and supposedly final beta, Beta 3, which will go out to testers a week later than Microsoft Corp. originally anticipated. The Redmond, Wash., company has been projecting internally for some time that it would deliver Beta 3 to testers starting April 21. Now it is expecting to do so on April 28, according to sources close to the company.
OEMs, a number of whom have agreed to preload Beta 3 on new hardware, could receive the final Beta 3 code on April 26, according to information gathered by www.betanews.com.
The week's delay is unlikely to have an impact on the final Windows 2000 release-to-manufacturing date, which Microsoft internally has pegged at Oct. 6 but which many industry watchers believe will be late this year or early next.
Despite the slippage, Microsoft is not expected to forego plans to talk up Beta 3 at next week's Comdex show in Chicago. There, CEO Bill Gates is slated to announce the company's Windows 2000 Channel Readiness and Corporate Partnership Programs.
As part of the Channel Readiness rollout, Microsoft will discuss resources and training it is providing its 18,500 Microsoft Certified Solution Providers worldwide. A number of these partners are slated to begin selling Windows 2000 Beta 3 to interested customers for $60 under the auspices of the Corporate Preview Program, which is aimed at linking up MCSPs and customers interested in evaluating Beta 3.
Solution Providers were authorized to begin taking orders for the Corporate Preview Program this week, MCSP sources say, and Microsoft will begin distributing product to MCSPs the week of May 17.
The Corporate Preview Program kits contain Beta 3 of Windows 2000 Professional and Server; the Windows 2000 Evaluation and Deployment Kit for assessment of the product from both the technical and business perspectives; limited technical support through newsgroups; and coupons for evaluation copies of Windows 2000 Advanced Server Beta 3 (for $19.95 each, plus shipping and handling) and multilanguage versions of Windows 2000 Professional and Server Beta 3 (for $21.95 each, plus shipping and handling). |
