Windows Vista Public Beta Available

June 8, 2006 5:09 AM

Windows Vista. Microsoft has released a public Beta of Windows Vista. Get your free copy with 2 activation keys that will let you install on 10 PCs per key. Public Beta Link.
posted by tatnasty (72 comments total)

She looks happy because she is sitting in a field miles away from the nearest Windows Vista-capable PC.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:16 AM on June 8, 2006

Will Windows XP hardware drivers work in Vista?
posted by Mr. Six at 5:18 AM on June 8, 2006

She looks happy because she is sitting in a field miles away from the nearest Windows Vista-capable PC.

check the mountain of mordor on the horizon!
posted by slater at 5:20 AM on June 8, 2006

But will its tapes play in my VCR?
posted by papercake at 5:23 AM on June 8, 2006

Forgot to mention in my post, you can Beta Office 2007 at the same link. Free software, Yay!
posted by tatnasty at 5:24 AM on June 8, 2006

Just don't forget that beta copies usually expire after a while.

At my last job, a bunch of developers installed a beta of WinXP and used it as their primary OS well in advance of the company buying a corporate license. When the betas all expired, they were very annoyed to discover that I had to completely re-image their PCs with the corporate-license version.
posted by briank at 5:30 AM on June 8, 2006

"All 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 software has an expiration date of February 1, 2007. After expiration, 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will continue to work in a reduced functionality mode that limits your options and operations. "
posted by tatnasty at 5:38 AM on June 8, 2006

"Thank you for your interest in Windows Vista Beta 2.

We are currently experiencing a high level of demand and cannot process your request at this time.

Please check back later for availability. We apologize for any inconvenience."
posted by TonyRobots at 5:46 AM on June 8, 2006

Sweet irony, from the Vista features page.
posted by efalk at 5:47 AM on June 8, 2006

Here's a direct link that is still working for downloading http://download.windowsvista.com/dl/preview/beta2/en/x86/iso/vista_5384.4.060518-1455_winmain_beta2_x86fre_client-LB2CFRE_EN_DVD.iso

Got it from here... http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=513691&tstart=0
posted by tatnasty at 5:53 AM on June 8, 2006

"All 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 software has an expiration date of February 1, 2007."
Sounds like plenty of time to use the OS until all the spyware and malware piles up.
posted by chef_boyardee at 5:56 AM on June 8, 2006

Keep in mind system requirements folks:

* A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
* 512 MB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

On a quasi-related note, I'm running the new Ubuntu 'Dapper Drake' and it's schweet. Just recompiled the kernel last night and added a few tweaks and it's stupid fast.
posted by rinkjustice at 5:57 AM on June 8, 2006

Ahaha I pity the fool that will install a beta only to discovers it ruined his PC !
posted by elpapacito at 6:09 AM on June 8, 2006

I just printed out my product key page, like it said, and the numbers didn't show up on the page.

And the download site was busy.

We're off to a good start.
posted by bondcliff at 6:11 AM on June 8, 2006

Computerworld visual tour: 20 Things You Won't Like About Windows Vista

Ars Technica: A tour of Windows Vista Beta 2
posted by kirkaracha at 6:20 AM on June 8, 2006

How ironic that Microsoft cannot/will not use bittorrent for this distribution.
Their loss. At 3GB per download, quite a bandwidth bill..
posted by grahamwell at 6:29 AM on June 8, 2006

Wolfdog: my thoughts exactly when I saw that picture.

I give this about 20 minutes before slashdot starts pumping out security vulnerabilities.
posted by triolus at 6:31 AM on June 8, 2006

How ironic that Microsoft cannot/will not use bittorrent for this distribution.

Not ironic, stupid. Irony would be if they used it.
posted by three blind mice at 6:33 AM on June 8, 2006

posted by brownpau at 6:55 AM on June 8, 2006

WinDOZE.

LOLZ.
posted by Alex404 at 6:55 AM on June 8, 2006

brownpau wins the game.

And that direct download URL doesn't work.
posted by zsazsa at 7:05 AM on June 8, 2006

So, what's the news on setting this up for a dual boot? I'd like to try out this puppy, but don't want to cream my current XP install to do it.
posted by thanotopsis at 7:11 AM on June 8, 2006

After expiration, 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will continue to work in a reduced functionality mode

That must be a feature, no?
posted by carter at 7:33 AM on June 8, 2006

I'll gladly wait until I can pay for my Beta copy on store shelves, thank you.
posted by NationalKato at 7:41 AM on June 8, 2006

Why do I get the feeling I'll be keeping XP on my machines long after Vista is released?
posted by linux at 7:44 AM on June 8, 2006

Thanks, but throwing my machine out a window would be more productive.
posted by StarForce5 at 7:52 AM on June 8, 2006

If Microsoft were to use BitTorrent to assist in distributing any of their software, what kind of legal issues do you think might arise from the fact that now people are getting official Microsoft software from non-Microsoft sources? Can they guarantee 100% that what people downloaded is bit-for-bit exactly the same software? Is there certainty that nobody could download the software and alter the version on their hard drive and have those alterations picked up by others?

As useful as it would be, it's just taking too many chances to allow distribution by that method.
posted by evilangela at 7:58 AM on June 8, 2006

As long as M$ (lolz) ran the tracker and distributed the torrent, yes, they can guarantee it is bit for bit the exact same software through the miracle of hashing.
posted by kableh at 8:02 AM on June 8, 2006

Why do people call things puppies?
posted by jon_kill at 8:15 AM on June 8, 2006

evilangela writes "Can they guarantee 100% that what people downloaded is bit-for-bit exactly the same software?"

Yes: Hashes and key signing.
posted by Mitheral at 8:18 AM on June 8, 2006

MS BACKDOOR!!!!!1 JOO CAN D/L VISTA!! BILL GATES IS PWND!!! HAHAH!
posted by wfrgms at 8:19 AM on June 8, 2006

Upon beginning the installation process, I noticed an immediate change. Vista boots into a GUI.

Welcome to the 80s, WNT!
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 8:28 AM on June 8, 2006

working well for me so far (2.4mhz, 512mb, geforcemx440)
posted by jmccw at 8:35 AM on June 8, 2006

Wow, ripping off Apple products - again and again. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but still. The first tab says, "experience" and inside it's all about the "user experience". Riiiight.

I often wonder how horrid it must be to be a programmer for Microsoft. I'm sure they're decent folks, who must occasionally feel crappy being pressured to release crappy products. Or do they drink the Kool-Aid and love the company - a pay check is a pay check, right? Do any MeFis work in Redmond or know anyone who does?
posted by rmm at 8:42 AM on June 8, 2006

Does anyone know the status of, say, nvidia drivers for this puppy thing?
posted by Skorgu at 9:00 AM on June 8, 2006

Wow, ripping off Apple products

Yea, I was excited at the prospect of a database backed filesystem, or just some innovation in filesystems in general. It looks like most of those groundbreaking features have been dropped, but they got those OS X-ish GUI features in there!
posted by kableh at 9:01 AM on June 8, 2006

Why do people call things puppies?

I'm not sure, but I think it's a Southernism. Anybody got a "Summon Languagehat" card handy?
posted by pax digita at 9:03 AM on June 8, 2006

Does it run on a macbook in parallels?
posted by mathowie at 9:11 AM on June 8, 2006

mathowie writes "Does it run on a macbook in parallels?"

The guys at tatnasty's apple link say the install doesn't run.
Parallels doesn't support its install yet, but its been said on their support forums that it's likely to be in the future.
posted by Mitheral at 9:20 AM on June 8, 2006

Why do I get the feeling I'll be keeping XP Windows 2000 on my machines long after Vista is released?
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:26 AM on June 8, 2006

Uh, bittorrent? Are you serious? Please. Generally Microsoft uses Akamai (or speedera, but Akamai bought them anyway) or the Savvis content delivery network for stuff like this.

The last thing that I would ever download from bittorrent is an operating system.

Anyway, our Windows guy here went to a week long class on Vista last week, and they gave him a DVD of the beta. And let me tell you, they really do lowball the system requirements.. big time. Fortunately, a nice 3ghz Dell box is cheap.
posted by drstein at 9:30 AM on June 8, 2006

Re-Introducing the Real Windows Vista: Bill Gates' Vista demo of Vista's upcoming features dubbed over OS X features that already exist. (Discussed previously.)
posted by kirkaracha at 9:32 AM on June 8, 2006

Why do people call things puppies?

because they grow up to be dogs
posted by pyramid termite at 9:39 AM on June 8, 2006

Does it run on a macbook in parallels?

Mathowie, Parallels Workstation virtualizes or emulates the graphics card, so that you're not using the native GPU. Until Parallels updates its video capabilities it is unlikely that Vista will run with its Aero effects-based interface.
posted by Mr. Six at 9:46 AM on June 8, 2006

drstein writes "The last thing that I would ever download from bittorrent is an operating system"

Why? I download Linux distros all the time over BT.
posted by Mitheral at 9:53 AM on June 8, 2006

According to the Ars tour, a pristine install takes up 16gb of hard drive space and uses around 700mb or RAM. Holy cow. 12gb of that is just the windows system directories.
posted by splatta at 10:08 AM on June 8, 2006

I think for the good drstein it would be rather like going into a sex shop for a business suit. Much better to buy from the respectable looking Akamai - even though has a sign in the window "Please check back later for availability. We apologize for any inconvenience." See - they apologise, you don't get that on BT.
posted by grahamwell at 10:11 AM on June 8, 2006

Has anyone installed this next to a copy of WinXP? Any problems uninstalling or the two fighting each other?
posted by geoff. at 10:28 AM on June 8, 2006

Is VPC7 capable of running this sucker? At all? (naturally it will be gawdawful slow)
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:53 AM on June 8, 2006

Vista running on a MacBook, via BootCamp
posted by mkultra at 11:07 AM on June 8, 2006

What is this, Slashdot?

Also there seems to be a lot of misinformation floating about regarding the system requirements vs. recommended sysstem for doing all the whizzbang shit.
posted by Artw at 11:23 AM on June 8, 2006

Do any MeFis work in Redmond or know anyone who does?

Yep, I'm friends with two people who work there. They're not particularly fond of the extend and embrace attitude of Msoft, but they like the job.

Well, one of them complains about all the oversight and regulations that they've introduced in the past 5 years. But the other one is hired to write programs to test (actually, break) .net. And he likes working there a lot.

Kind of suprised me.

(dislcaimer, I'm not a windows fan, despite writing this from an xp box. I've got lots of operating systems and I can see all of msofts warts very clearly.)
posted by lumpenprole at 11:53 AM on June 8, 2006

Gonna wait for service pack 15.
posted by space2k at 12:59 PM on June 8, 2006

Mathowie, Parallels Workstation virtualizes or emulates the graphics card, so that you're not using the native GPU. Until Parallels updates its video capabilities it is unlikely that Vista will run with its Aero effects-based interface.

It's probably better to run Vista in bootcamp (link) than in parallels.

That's a good question, actually -- can I install a second Windows partition on my macbook, or do I have to blow away my current Win XP install to try vista?

Frankly, I'd rather fuck up my PC at work =P
posted by illovich at 2:22 PM on June 8, 2006

rmm: Wow, ripping off Apple products...

Yeah, let's jump down microsoft's throat for ripping off some of OSX's look and feel. Meanwhile, let's completely ignore that Apple took their entire operating system's backend from free software.

Imitation happens. That's how evolutionary advances happen in the computer world. Apple does it every bit as much as Microsoft does.
posted by Mitrovarr at 2:24 PM on June 8, 2006

Imitation happens. That's how evolutionary advances happen in the computer world. Apple does it every bit as much as Microsoft does.
posted by Mitrovarr at 5:24 PM EST on June 8 [+fave] [!]

Happens in many other industries as well. You'll find, for example, that overhead camshafts, originally pioneered by Renault are used by other car companies. It would be absolutely hilarious to see people refuse to drive a Honda because they "ripped" off Renault.
posted by juiceCake at 3:03 PM on June 8, 2006

Poor Tom Skerritt. You do one soft-core movie with Drew Barrymore and it's all downhill from there.
posted by LeeJay at 3:58 PM on June 8, 2006

Why does anyone at all think it's ok for an OS on its own to require 512MB of RAM?
posted by squidlarkin at 4:26 PM on June 8, 2006

Why does anyone at all think it's ok for an OS on its own to require 512MB of RAM?

Why do the batteries in my digital camera only last an hour?
posted by mrgrimm at 4:35 PM on June 8, 2006

Why won't those damned kids get off my lawn?
posted by Zozo at 4:43 PM on June 8, 2006

Up to XP, the reason to switch to M$'s next OS was predominantly greater stability. What is the impetus to switch to Vista? (really, my XP machines are stable, and I've stripped the eye-candy. With all the features Vista dropped - like a new search/index system, or the db file system - other than gui's, is there a reason to switch?)
posted by creeptick at 5:35 PM on June 8, 2006

The last thing that I would ever download from bittorrent is an operating system.

I do not understand this statement.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:05 PM on June 8, 2006

Up to XP, the reason to switch to M$'s next OS was predominantly greater stability. What is the impetus to switch to Vista? (really, my XP machines are stable, and I've stripped the eye-candy. With all the features Vista dropped - like a new search/index system, or the db file system - other than gui's, is there a reason to switch?)

I'd say that the most attractive feature should be the added security layers, and potentially the "end of malware."

In reality, it's looking like the added security features are going to slow us down with tons of dialogue boxes and a general mistrust for the user. At least with XP I've completely mastered keeping my system clean and running fast!

I'm sure, just like with XP, that Vista will be an awesome operating system about a year after its release. This way, we'll have SP1 and most of the major bugs out, and a lot of user-made workarounds for the little annoyances.
posted by Ekim Neems at 6:47 PM on June 8, 2006

"The pleasure of testing..." hah.
posted by endquote at 7:20 PM on June 8, 2006

It's a fun thing to fiddle with, in a sort of 'it's installed as a secondary OS on our second PC, so it can't possibly do any real harm' way, but I must admit I don't see the point of upgrading 'til there's a game I want that requires it.

It's pretty, though. Even if Media Centre committed the most heinous of crimes by trying to switch the monitor (presumably because I told it we're in the UK) to 50hz, as if it was an HDTV and we poor Brits were limited to shit flicker-o-vision (which, non-European console and PC companies please take note, we are not, and nor have we been for years!). Which took ages to resolve. Which sort of sapped my enthusiasm for playing with all the shiny buttons.
posted by terpsichoria at 2:25 AM on June 9, 2006

Will it work on my Mac?
posted by ryana at 2:49 PM on June 9, 2006

The last thing that I would ever download from bittorrent is an operating system.

Care to explain? Hashing is pretty good these days, it would be one hell of a trick to introduce bad data into a torrent (that wasn't there when the hash file was made).
posted by Rictic at 2:56 PM on June 9, 2006

Why does anyone at all think it's ok for an OS on its own to require 512MB of RAM?
posted by squidlarkin at 5:26 PM MST on June 8 [+fave] [!]

I don't think that's a valid question. The question should be "Does anyone think it's ok for an OS on its own to require $50 worth of RAM?" With that mindset I think it makes more sense.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:16 PM on June 9, 2006

ryana - if you have an intel mac, yes. I am writing this from a MacBook Pro running the Vista Beta. This thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=513691&tstart=45) has info towards the bottom for how to do it. Gotta admit, Vista is pretty cool. Alot of naysayers who have probably not even looked at it yet...
posted by tatnasty at 1:06 AM on June 10, 2006

I'm sure, just like with XP, that Vista will be an awesome operating system about a year after its release.

XP is an awesome OS?

How so?
posted by five fresh fish at 11:03 AM on June 11, 2006

XP is an awesome OS?

I know that a solid, free remote desktop client and server solution built into the OS make my job much easier. OS X makes you pay for the client. (VNC availabilty and security aside.)
posted by Mr. Six at 2:35 PM on June 11, 2006

Tatnasty, you may be right. Vista is ravishingly beautiful, but I fear the beta testers need to gang together to stop Microsoft from pursuing this security model, which is, frankly, retarded.

Here is a nice article on pfishing from the Register which explains why pfishing works. Even sophisticated users just don't pay any attention to these boxes. They don't work, they just piss everyone off.

An example. Change the time. Press the button 'Change date and time' ... 'Oh My God', says Vista, 'Someone's trying to change the date and time'. Yes, that'd be me. I just asked you to, remember? It's as if my computer has suddenly become a committee divided into sulky factions. Absurd. If this isn't fixed we might be looking at Windows Edsel.
posted by grahamwell at 4:59 PM on June 11, 2006