While I agree in general with your advice, with MS’s new trend of releasing betas to the public
instead of undergoing extensive private beta testing (any that is done is limited to a relative few
compared to the more extensive techbeta testing done previously), seems to result in publicly
released betas that have far fewer bugs than what in the past was released to private beta testers.
In other words, I would not hesitate to put this kind of beta on a non-test machine, but would
advise against putting it (or any beta) on a production-critical machine. So IMO your warnings do
not fully apply with regard to the public betas like it did with the private betas that received
much earlier beta versions. Just my thoughts and opinion..
Art [artfudd] Folden
I'm a PC and Windows 7 sux less!
): !tol a xus llits liaMLW tub..
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"Ken Blake" <kblake@kb.invalid> wrote in message news:nfs6b6ldlbsc7bhjtnc8fo1ft49g1lq41m@4ax.com...
On Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:10:52 -0700, "Charles Tomaras"
<tomaras@tomaras.com> wrote:
>
> "Ken Blake" <kblake@kb.invalid> wrote in message
> news:fmo6b65niucq368ap23bneeh7r39tsaa9k@4ax.com...
> > On Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:51:46 +0100, Boscoe <laughingboy47@hotmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> The new Beta release of IE9 is here, and I?'ve been using it for a few
> >> weeks with no problems. Seems to be reasonably stable and trouble-free
> >
> >
> > OK, but here's my standard message re beta software:
> >
> > All that exists of IE9 is a beta test version of it. The reason it's a
> > beta test version instead of a released version is that it still has
> > bugs in it, and Microsoft is looking for beta test users to inform
> > them of other bugs as they are found,
> >
> > In my view, unless you have a spare computer to install it on, and
> > enjoy doing beta testing of software and reporting of bugs to
> > Microsoft, installing such beta software is just looking for trouble.
> >
> > Yes, you can install the beta version, but for almost everyone I
> > strongly advise *against* doing that, and waiting for it to be
> > released.
>
> Well...the kind of bugs that might be found in a beta of this sort are not
> generally the critical types of bugs. This software has had more people
> hours of beta testing already than most released applications ever get. This
> is all about web site compatibility, UI and performance tweaking. How many
> millions of downloads now and how many "critical" issues? This is pretty
> safe stuff.
Might it be somewhat safer than other types of beta software? Yes,
probably. Does that means it's entirely safe? No, it doesn't.
Your choice. I'll continue to recommend against it, as I recommend
against all beta software, "unless you have a spare computer to
install it on, and enjoy doing beta testing of software and reporting
of bugs to Microsoft."