“Software testers are going to be busy in the next few weeks
as new Windows and Linux betas make their way into the
marketplace. Microsoft officials said the company Tuesday had
posted the first official beta release of Whistler — which is the
successor to Windows 2000 — to the private Whistler Web site for
beta testers.”
“Starting this week, the company will begin shipping CD versions
of Whistler to an additional 200,000 testers via its Microsoft
Developer Network subscription service. In an unusual move for the
company, Microsoft is planning a phased launch for Whistler,
company officials acknowledged on Tuesday, delivering desktop
versions of the operating system first, followed by server
versions.”
“Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Linux godfather Linus Torvalds has
posted to kernel.org the near-final release of the Linux 2.4
kernel. In making available to developers the so-called 2.4.0
Test10-Final release, Torvalds noted that this beta has no known
“showstopper” bugs. If testers discover no serious bugs,
Torvalds could release the final 2.4 kernel some time in
November.”