[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] The beta process - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Thu, May 29 2008 20:17 bradley

The beta process

The WSSG Community Lead Blog : Thoughts on Sean's post on Community Strategy; Are you Company-Centric or Customer-Centric?:
http://blogs.technet.com/kevin_beares/archive/2008/05/19/thoughts-on-sean-s-post-on-cummunity-strategy-are-you-company-centric-or-customer-centric.aspx

Some bugs you win, some you lose.

One that is in RC0 thanks to the folks on the activedir listserve that inspired it is the registry key value of DSRMAdminLogonBehavior.  You can read more about it here:

Windows Server 2008 Restartable AD DS Step-by-Step Guide:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/library/caa05f49-210f-4f4c-b33f-c8ad50a687101033.mspx

At the end of the day everyone who is a beta tester has to remember and understand that Microsoft makes the final decisions.  And sometimes, it's not the developers, nor the support folks but higher up in the food chain that makes the final call.  And it sure isn't anyone that folks call "the MVPs" making final decisions.

Sometimes things get cut.  Take SCE.  I still say if I were in charge of the Universe that I would include SCE as a bonus in SBS 2008 premium and not be preconfigured.  Or perhaps hook it to var/vap/ Open License sales or something.  But to talk about SCE for two years after TechEd 2005, granted even though when it was first on the box I was freaking out as it was sucking down about 2 to 3 gigs when it was idling.  But I still don't think that it should have been talked about for so long and then removed completely.  I still think that SCE's developers should be locked in a room with nothing but Mountain Dew and forced to code on a 2 gig server or something, but that's just my wacko opinion.

But at the end of the day you bug some, you win some, you don't win others.  Life goes on.

It's just code.  Life is too short to take it personal.

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# re: The beta process

Friday, May 30, 2008 8:59 AM by David Mackie

My belief is that SP1 for SCE 2007 Sorted a number of the memory issues but since we are abandoning the whole idea of using SCE in both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 (mackie.is-a-geek.net/.../smb-network-support-needs-to-be-one-pane-of-glass-or-at-least-no-more-than-two.aspx) my care factor to check it out is below low.

You have always been right on this issue, Life is too short to take it personal. Scary that it has taken me nearly 3 years to listen.

# re: The beta process

Friday, May 30, 2008 10:29 AM by Kevin Beares

I agree with you when you say that you win some and you lose some, but the I think this misses the core point that Sean was trying to make.

Ultimately, when you release a product does it resonate with the community and your future customers or is it a flop? Does it spread virally through word of mouth? Do people freaking go crazy to get a copy or do they shrug their shoulders and say, ahhh, I'll buy it, but it doesn't really meet my needs.  

We can only hope that the cuts that we make don't have this kind of negative impact on this viral feeling.  

What you bring up Susan is really interesting in terms of exposure, as an MVP or an early adopter where you are on beta tests, is you get to see what may make it into the final release.  So, you are seeing the decisions as they are being made.  Most of our customers don't see this process. They only get to see the final product.

So, again, we really hope that SBS 2008 when we finally hit the ship date sets the world on fire and people not only make the decision to go with it, but spread the word about what a great product it is.

Apple has this impact. When they released the iPhone they immediately became the #1 device in the space that they targeted. No matter what features didn't make it or did, they obviously figured out a way to come to a decision on the features that would make the community sing it's praises.

Just some additional thoughts.

Kevin

# re: The beta process

Friday, May 30, 2008 11:07 AM by bradley

Part of this post is a reaction to folks that see this aura of "the MVPs" and consider that we have this power to change Microsoft and that the resulting product is 100% tracable to the imput of "the MVPs".  Sometimes we don't ask for things to be dumbed down, sometimes we're not asking for things to be cut, sometimes the answer from Microsoft for what we ask is "no".

Apple made a phone, one that it works with one phone company.  Arguably not the same partner ecosystem.  Is the new "keeping it quite" better for Microsoft?  Time will tell.  

But yeah.. ship date is just a day that we know we can order the SKU.  It has nothing to do with our deploy date, when we're comfy with the product and we put our stamp of approval on it.

# re: The beta process

Friday, May 30, 2008 11:52 AM by Brian Johnson

I have been working with the Essentials team on this for the past year and SP1 for Essentials has significally reduced the memory and processor utilitization. They spent a lot of time on the installation and setup which has help in getting Essentials deployed a lot easier.

If you are using Essentials install SP1...