Given the number of beta testers, and the fact most of them just provided telemetry data and were only really interested in getting a shiny new toy to play with (like most beta testers these days, sadly), I think it's fair enough that beta testers are not being given a free copy of Windows 7.
What I think *isn't* right, though, is that the reward for testing Windows 7 beta and RC1 is to continue using RC1 until October, even though the RTM code will be complete in the next couple of weeks.
Why thank people by forcing them to keep using old/broken code when new/fixed code is available? IMO it'd be better if Microsoft gave all beta testers access to the RTM with their licence keys expiring at the time of the retail release. What is there to lose from doing that?
It's not only annoying for those testers: It's bloody annoying for software developers as well.
We have people reporting issues in our software when run on Windows 7 beta, RC1 and various leaked builds. Others then report the issues aren't there in later (leaked) builds... It'd be nice if we didn't have to worry about which of the many Win 7 builds people are using (and the back & forth of finding out) when they report issues and we try to reproduce them.
For both users and developers, it'd be nice not to have to investigate and resolve bugs which it turns out have already been fixed.
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