Several South African companies are to be involved in the Windows testing programme following the release of the beta 2 versions of Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the latest Windows Server product.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced the beta 2 releases last night at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.
"South African companies will be among the two million testers who will be involved in the Windows Vista beta 2 programme, which is the biggest ever beta programme for Windows," says Jonathan Hatchuel, Windows client business group manager at Microsoft SA.
"We are excited because the beta 2 stage of any product represents a significant milestone and this means we are absolutely on track for delivering the best version of Windows to date, which SA has helped develop by participating in the technology adoption programme," says Hatchuel.
The beta 2 program will be the first glimpse of the long-awaited Windows Vista operating system for members of the public involved in the crucial testing programme aimed at reviewing code and security.
Back on track?
This is the first time Microsoft has released beta versions of all three products simultaneously and the move is widely being interpreted as indicating Microsoft is back on track to meet its revised release schedule.
Having missed the initial release dates, Windows Vista is now scheduled for release to large business customers in November and consumers in January. The new version of Office is due out about the same time and Windows Server, codenamed "Longhorn", is expected in the second half of 2007.
Microsoft has made the 2007 Microsoft Office system beta 2 available as a free download.
Earlier this month, the Gartner research firm expressed doubt Microsoft would meet the Vista consumer target date. However, analysts now say indications that Microsoft is on track will bring new confidence to the market and may even buoy Microsoft`s stock, which has fallen more than 14% this year.
Software advances
Announcing the beta releases, Gates said the three products would drive innovation across the industry and support the ecosystem of hardware manufacturers that continued to expand choices for customers.
"As the world of digital business information grows exponentially, businesses look to software advances to not only manage the influx of this information, but also to accelerate the effectiveness and impact of their people," said Gates.
Last week, Microsoft gave PC owners detailed information on its minimum hardware requirements for Windows Vista, indicating the operating system will run on most PCs sold in the past few years.
However, Vista`s most advanced features - including the three-dimensional Aero user interface - will require more powerful machines with a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 128MB of dedicated graphics memory.
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