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Posted by Serge Rielau on 09/17/05 23:41
DA Morgan wrote:
> 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.
Isn't that for the purchaser of the book to decide? Presumably most
readers are consenting adults. On the DB2 side we have both closed and
open betas, also with select customers going into production earlier.
What makes a closed beta more "real" than a closed beta that turns into
an open beta (as Erland describes).
I too am surprised that people buy these books, but that tells me more
about demand than wrongness. Keep in mind that while the installations,
in average may be smaller than Oracle's and DB2's I wouldn't be
surprised if the number of developers is actually higher given the
SMBness of the install base. These folks want to get on the beta train
to learn. Nothing wrong with that.
Cheers
Serge
--
Serge Rielau
DB2 SQL Compiler Development
IBM Toronto Lab
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