I understand and even applaud MS for all of the work done on testing Vista for security problems. In fact, let me go on record as saying that I don't care if the ship date slips. To the delight of the head honchos in Redmond, Vista developers in charge of security are already wearing t-shirts claiming that they are the ones delaying its release. Everyone gets caught up in the hoopla of bashing MS regardless of what they do. The same people bashing them for delaying are the same ones that have complained for years that MS released software too quickly.

But in seems as though this hoopla has a reverse effect on MS as well. So, I don't know exactly how to fit this in with a released schedule, but I got email today from Microsoft with a link to what they are calling Pre-RC1. Isn't that marketing speak for Beta3?

Trust me when I say that Microsoft knows how important it is to get this thing into production. Hell, it's been their cash cow for decades and will remain so. Do you think they don't know this? But keep this in mind. They have alreday missed the holiday shopping season, so what will postponing the release for another month or 2 to make certain that their Is are dotted and their Ts are crossed? Not much.

That being said, here's the link to download Beta3:

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/prerc1/en/download.html

Don