Will there be an RTM evaluation version?

[Brian Bradley]

Will there be an evaluation version of the RTM made available to anyone?
_ _ _ _ _ _

Thank you ALL posters and problem solvers. Shame and pity on those beta
testers who do not use this newsgroup in conjunction with their testing.
(Their loss.)

With the help of this newsgroup, I've had good results on my three rather
old and ordinary PCs listed below. With RC1 I have elevated Vista to my
working OS, with careful planning and back-ups and contingencies in place,
of course. I will be purchasing Vista Business as soon as it is released,
even if I have to continue to boot back into XP to use my HP Photosmart 1000
printer and WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows.

My three PCs:

1. Generic desktop (Fry's GQ brand) ECS 741GX-M (SIS chipset) with AMD
Athlon XP 3000+, 1GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 5200, unknown 80GB HD (base
purchase price new = $179!)

2. Compaq Evo desktop (SFF) D510S (Intel 815 chipset) with Pentium 4 2.0
GHz, 1GB RAM, integrated Intel graphics (non-Aero), Seagate 40MB HD
(purchased used = $40!)

3. Toshiba 1410 notebook (Intel 845 chipset) with Celeron 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM,
integrated graphics (non-Aero), Toshiba 30GB HD

I have a cable Internet connection using a Motorola Surfboard modem and a
(cheap) Airlink wireless-B router to feed the laptop.

My only complaint with RC1 is that networking seems a little non-intuitive,
what with all the settings and permissions. The other bugs I have come
across have been reported and have workarounds.

Not much, if anything has been said here about WordPerfect products. I would
like to report that on RC1 I have successfully installed and run WordPerfect
Office X3. WordPerfect for Windows version 5.2 will not install correctly.
Although the Compatibility Wizard does not fix it, a "fixed in RTM" dialog
pops up immediately and with no detrimental artifacts after the failed
installation. I am crossing my fingers that it will indeed be fixed. Yes, I
still need WPWin 5.2 because one of my lawyer clients refuses to let it go,
and WPX3 does not back-convert correctly, no matter what Corel says.

Thanks again, everybody!
Brian in San Diego
Transcriptionist and eBay Seller

P.S. I installed Vista Starter out of curiosity and found it to be
surprisingly capable for its intended scenario: apparently as a stand-alone
PC or one that can share files "in" but not "out," unless I missed
something. And yes, it's true that only three applications can be open at a
time.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

None has been announced. I have never seen a trial version of a retail
Windows before. I have seen trial versions of such editions as XP Pro x64,
but that is because a high percentage of computers would have problems with
64bit device drivers and a potential user needs to check out his own system
before committing to the OS. In any case XP Pro x64 is not available at
retail.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Brian;
Do not expect an evaluation version by itself.
But Microsoft still bundles evaluation versions of Windows XP in appropriate
books so I expect similar with Windows Vista..

As for "Shame and pity on those beta testers who do not use this newsgroup"
That seems far to broad a statement and needs to make assumptions about the
available time and lifestyles of the Beta testers.
Not all have as much time as you seem to assume they should.

 

[Brian Bradley]

Thank you, Mr. Jones, for the first paragraph of your reply.

Brian in San Diego

 

[MsOsWin]

"Brian Bradley" <[email protected]> in

...
The GQ hasn't blown up or caught fire? bitten someone's leg? (not that it should. but in
light of the 'u git wot u pay fer'... i am asking.)
i haven't searched recently, but do you think "great quality" is not junk? that's rather low
reputation motherboard and chipsets... (also maybe you could pop it open and look for any
names on the power supply, RAM)

wow. had it been flattened by a schoolbus? come from louisiana? i don't know whether
compaq is so Great, but p4 2.0 for $40
did you have to buy it online (ebay..?)

maybe you have Greater Quality luck than most people have

i have a feeling that it'll be another 5 years before that becomes as userfriendly as it'l ever
be. pseudo-ai. mindreader learning mode with quickly accessible retweak.

someone similar to zonelabs/zonealarm in 2000/2001 will work this out.

lawyers too cheap to upgrade to win95. just as in the well-abraded cliche.


Thing, Thing, and Thing.
or Thing, Thing, and Thing.
And Thing, Thing, and Thing are also fine.
but if you try Thing, Thing, Thing, and Thing - Thing just won't start?