You have heard about the new launch name for the "in development" product that used to be called Longhorn. It's now called Windows Vista. I was among 10000 of my closest friends at the Microsoft Global Briefing when Brian Valentine announced the new name at the end of his presentation/demo session. As he announced the new name, he took off his BIG cowboy hat and put on a new ball cap with the Windows Vista logo and name on the front. Explosions, confetti, cheers came up from the crowd as he left the stage - or rather rode off on his white horse.You now know that certain members of the public will be getting a copy of Beta 1 from various avenues like MSDN subscriptions or TechNet Plus subscriptions. You can also get a copy by attending special events that the Canadian IT Pro team is going to be putting on over the next while. Which ones? You will have to wait for that announcement (I had to get you to come back to my blog somehow, didn't I?)So, being the diligent IT Pro team member and TechNet Plus subscriber, I decided to check online to see what is up and how do I get access to it. I followed John Howards post from the UK (http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward/archive/2005/07/28/408300.aspx) (great guy by the way - met him last January in Redmond) links for download information and read a couple of comments from his post that it isn't available to TechNet Plus subscribers until September???!!?!?! Why is that?
Here's the link for Beta 1 information: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/betadist.mspx
Here's the link for the Vista Beta information page: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/default.mspxAfter some further investigation, I signed into the TechNet Plus subscribers area online and noticed - there is no dl site for anything. Hang on. The subscription now includes evaluation software as a VERY value-add to your subscription, but it lacks the Download part for now. After sitting back and thinking about this for a bit - I realized that I have been getting all the software and promised applications, materials and other valuable resources.Interesting...It's never come up before. I mentioned this to my team - and they also were surprised to not find any ISO or SW download areas on the TechNet Plus subscribers area.Am I missing something? Or is TechNet Plus subscription missing something? Care to comment? Click on the link to sound off!