Things are getting a little restless at the MS Windows Home Server Forums, as the community waits for the release of RC1. One user writes:
“Where the hell is RC1, ive been waiting all week for it to be released, obsessively checking this site for its presence. Well it doesnt look like its going to be this week either now . Anyone have any thoughts on release dates?”
To which WHS GM, Charlie Kindel responds:
“We will release the RC when we believe it is done. Not before.
A lot of people got the impression that it’s release was imminent when we posted the message warning people about the upgrade limitation. I am sorry that people got that impression becuase that was not our intent. We were simply trying to be respectful of our beta test community by giving people fair warning of an issue that might impact them.
My team is working very hard to get the RC to you. You’ll note that I am typing this message at 10:15pm PST on a Friday night. I am at my desk at Microsoft…that should tell you something about how hard we are working.
I really wish I could pin down a specific date. But we will not ship the RC until it is ready. RC means “Release Candidate” and my team takes that definition very seriously.
Thank you again for your passion and support for this product!
-cek”
There’s always lots of frustration from beta testers towards the release of a new build - generally, this all pours out in private newsgroups (to the point where on the Vista beta, there was a partly-serious $0.25 fine for anyone asking when the next build was available) as people are eager to get their hands on the new release.
The key thing here, as cek points out, is that this is a Release Candidate, and all bugs must be squashed before release so the build is stable and solid. It can only take one nasty bug to creep in for a build to be nixed and fail sign-off so it’s not surprising that the team are working well into the night, every night to get a build that’s worthy of RC status.
The product will be better for the time spent on it - time for a little patience.
But, what RC will also signal is a raising of the bar for submitted bugs to be fixed - I’m not exacty sure what that bar will be for the WHS team, but certainly, experience suggests that as each milestone passes on towards RTM, it becomes tougher and tougher to get bugs fixed - certainly any cosmetic/aesthetic issues (known as “fit and finish” bugs) tend to be rejected, as the team focus down on any serious show-stoppers. So, expect to see the words “Won’t Fix” quite a lot over the next couple of weeks if you’ve been actively bugging. Whilst it can be frustrating for testers, it’s a necessary evil - they need to get the software shipped. There’s always “one more bug” which could be fixed, but fixing that bug could introduce a whole bunch of regression bugs, so naturally the bar has to raise.
In the meantime, with a big Windows Live Beta just starting and Windows Server 2008 continuing, there’s a lot to keep you occupied as you wait for the RC.
Leave a Reply