When Microsoft Corp. released its first Windows Vista Community Technology Preview build this fall, company officials said they did so in the name of transparency.
But testers say Microsoft is being anything but transparent about the November CTP build of the next version of Windows, which some company watchers are speculating will go to a wider pool of testers on Tuesday.
However, one tester, who requested anonymity, said he believed there would be no November CTP, and possibly no additional CTPs at all.
“Microsoft has unofficially canceled the November CTP for Windows Vista to technical beta testers,” the tester said. In fact, the future of the Vista CTP program itself is unclear, he said.
“Microsoft has yet to say anything about this though, as usual,” the tester said.
CTPs, pioneered by Microsofts developer division with Visual Studio, are interim pre-release versions of a product that are not beta quality. They represent a snapshot of a product under development at a given time, and are meant for developers and testers who arent afraid to be on the bleeding edge.
At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in mid-September, company officials said they were hoping to release monthly CTPs of Vista. So far, Microsoft has released both September and October Vista CTPs.
