Posted by DA Morgan on 09/17/05 18:39

Erland Sommarskog wrote:

> No, I don't agree. If there is an interest in a beta product, I see
> nothing wrong with writing a book about it. (And while encouraged by
> Microsoft, the books are independent publications.) As for production
> systems, I would expect Oracale as well put quite a few installations
> live on their new versions, both inside and outside Oracle before they
> make an official release. If they do not, I would be very worried as a
> potential customer. There simply is no such thing is no such test as a
> production environment...

Oracle does huge Betas. But they are "real" beta programs not open to
the general public and requiring that the testers sign NDAs and report
back results: In other words they are real Betas. I'd be interested to
know, over the last 3.5 years, what percentage of the people with SQL
Server 2005 Beta actually provided any real feedback on the product.

But I am surprised you see no problem with a book about a Beta. A Beta
is guaranteed to not be production ready. Guaranteed to not be the
final release code. A book about a Beta is guaranteed to be incorrect
unless wholly superficial. It just doesn't compute to me.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)

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