Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

(Column) - One of the things that the Web 2.0 explosion has brought upon us is the proliferation of the Beta. It seems like you can’t go anywhere online anymore without seeing "BETA" plastered all over everything. The word makes reference to a trial of a product in the final stages of its development by either the public or a select group of individuals. That term used to command a little more respect, but these days, online services are using it as an easy excuse to point you to if something doesn’t work like it should. "Our service took all of your account information and sent it to offshore spammers? Sorry - it’s in Beta."

They may expect us to understand their plight and take it easy on them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to react that way, especially if the service has been in Beta for months or even years. The users aren’t stupid - when the release status of Beta is used to rush something out to the public before it’s even close to being ready, then they’ll call you out on it. This applies to regular software, and it applies even more to operating systems.

Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft - why do you make it so easy to criticize your products? In a standard development cycle, the product gets better and better as the final release date nears, but Microsoft’s Vista seems to progressively become worse off as time goes on. It’s almost like they’re trying to make it a piece of junk. However, I have to hand it to them in some respects, because at least they subjected themselves to early public scrutiny by releasing these Betas for us to play with and scream at.

If they would have just kept the OS to themselves and then dropped it in our laps with a loud thud on its release date, then it would have made countless computer users very upset. They may have been able to maintain some excitement for the product by keeping it off-limits, but that would have been deceptive anticipation. At least we now have an idea as to what Vista will really be like, and we won’t be shocked when it doesn’t live up to Microsoft’s hype.

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