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ya the beta testing is "as is" you are testing and resporting back things with no compensation. "Microsoft is not liable for..." it goes on and on, read the whole EULA, but because i got more than just the beta my rules were different as a ___________________

dude, grow a sense of humor

Putting bugs and go go together sounds like an inspector gadget reference to me.

Go Go robot, humor!

What do you mean by this?

I mean something along the lines of, "yippee skippee: less bugs!" Unless you're avidly anti-Microsoft or a spider, less bugs in Windows is generally a good thing.

Also, I'm using Ubuntu right now, though I wouldn't say it's my system of preference.

Oh, and the part about getting compensated for my testing time wasn't meant to be taken literal. Though I wouldn't mind. I'm sure none of us would. Wishful thinking.

Edited 2009-02-27 04:14 UTC

Have you ever beta tested software before? You use the software normally, and report bugs when they occur. You just don't sit there randomly testing features.



Because I pay lots of money to MS, I want the damn thing to be functional, therefore I want them to test teh hell out of it. MS is a big company, but not big enough that they could effectively find bugs at a rate that would allow Windows to be released. It's very complex.



Nice number, but meaningless, and entirely made up. The Beta is free. If you like Windows, why not be a tester? It gets you better software in the end, and it costs nothing but a little time. It's my time, don't tell me how I can best use it.



Again with the 30 bucks? It's a bogus number, give it up. Ubuntu isn't out to be a charity, you know. Their stated goal is also to be a successful company, which means making as much money as possible.

Debian or another of the community based distros are the ones that need time and money donated to them, not Ubuntu, they have the same goals as MS. They just want to sell you support.

One of the main reasons to test Windows is because it's sometimes cool to play with new software, to see how things are going, and maybe get a say. Read the Engineering Windows blog, they seem to be really listening to customers this time, and that is what testing is for. So the money you spend on the final product is money better spent.

If you work in a corporate environment and need windows, testing software before release allows you to be prepared for the new product, to know what works and what doesn't, and to perhaps get something fixed so your stuff works.

.. that's kind of a statement, isn't it? :-)

No company is big enough, not in a reasonable amount of time, Windows is too big.

You know that referring to any business as a "convicted felon" just makes you lose any credibility.

Anyways, welcome to the world, this is how it works. Business makes product, consumer buys product. I guess in your la la land, software developers all get paid from that mysterious money tree right?

I sure hope you and your family live in the woods living off the land, because god forbid they should be working for any busineses, or are forced to purchase any product. Hey, how are you even writing this? Did you make this computer out of a tree you chopped down? No, you purchased it from a corporation who "only_ stated goal is to extract as much money from you as it possibly can"...now grow up.

Corporations are dedicated to making as much money as possible _within_ the bounds of law, which is why Microsoft was in fact found guilty of monopolistic practices, which is in fact a major crime, not to mention anti-capitalistic.

As a consumer and citizen, the free market is a means to creating the greatest social good through economic growth, technological innovation and job creation, I don't care about making as much money as possible. And that is why I am grateful that we have rules against anti-competitive practices which inhibit all those things. It's a good thing that people do care about other things besides money or we'd still be using crappy dialup on rubber couplers over analog handsets owned by Ma Bell.

I don't understand this. You seem to be saying that beta testers for Windows 7 or Ubuntu are somehow paying $30 an hour for the privilege. Said money goes either into Microsoft's coffers or to 'millions of people' somewhere, depending which product you're testing. Not my words - yours.

Now, brace yourself, I've got some good news for you - it's quite free to beta test either of them! I've been testing Windows 7 since mid January and it hasn't cost me a penny. And last time I checked, Ubuntu was just as free to beta test!

No, he's saying that beta tester is a paid for job that in this case some people are doing for free so a corporation saves some money in the process of developing a commercial product.
It's a matter of maximizing the profit getting people to work for free.

Then he went to compare it with beta testing ubuntu, which is a free (in every sense) product.

Where is a beta tester paid? Can you give some examples please? Most beta testing is done for a company by customers. Companies have paid QA people, but those are not beta testers.

Most know example could be game testing, being the kind of job most teens dream about (they might change their mind though if they asked people working at, say, Eidos).

Beta testing is part of the QA process, and it's only done for free when you can find enough people willing to do so.

Microsoft's bug tracker has a lot of super sensitive information. Things like a bug that crashes MSIE due to a buffer overflow in the DHTML parser (usually the bug has a test case or sample file attached as well). Another category is bugs opened as a result of Microsoft partners calling in, clearly they need to keep customer data confidential. At the end of the day, Microsoft has a lot of things they don't want to share with the public, that's why it's called closed source; because you're out of the loop.

So, then what you really want to say is that you are simply a troll with nothing better to do with your sad little life but post nonsense about products and services you do not use...smart.

http://connect.microsoft.com -- you can file bugs there (as I have a decent handful). The bugs will be examined by someone at MSFT and possibly discussed with their team.

You'll eventually get a response saying:
1. "We've fixed this in the next release" (Closed, Fixed)
2. "This isn't a fix we feel we can include in Windows 7, but will evaluate it for the next version of Windows" (Closed, Won't Fix)
3. "This isn't actually a bug, no matter how you actually want that widget to work -- it's actually working as we've designed it. But if you get enough people to complain, we'll consider re-examining it." (Closed, by design)

It's not an open source project, but there is a way to track your bugs, provide comment and validation on other bugs and rate bugs and get some feedback from a developer. (Many of the complaints you're hearing about Windows 7 are because someone's precious bug got closed as "Won't Fix")

I don't know if the public has access to this, but I've been using Connect for years and I like it.