Windows 2000 Beta 3 to be followed by frequent updates

Technical beta testers, RDP members, and other Microsoft partners will bereceiving new builds every 5 to 8 weeks after Beta 3, says Brian Valentine,the VP of Microsoft's Windows 2000 engineering group. Valentine says thesuddenly stepped-up release cycle is designed to get "fresh code" into thehands of testers for the remainder of the year, until Windows 2000 isreleased to manufacturing.

"The plan is to drop out a [release candidate] every 5 to 8 weeks to all ourpartners," he said during the Windows 2000 Beta 3 announcement Thursday."There was a long period of time between Beta 2 and Beta 3. We'll be keepingall testing sites very fresh with software from now on. The new drops willcontain fixes based on feedback from testers."

Valentine says that the focus for Windows 2000 is now on quality andreliability: The feature set is frozen and Microsoft is working to clean uplingering bugs, improve performance (which is already notably better sinceBeta 2 anyway) and get Windows 2000 Beta 3 deployed as often as possible.Indeed, Microsoft is in the process of moving all of its production serversto Windows 2000 Beta 3.

"The Windows 2000 team is jazzed about Beta 3," Valentine says