Vista - zdnet,s take on IE8 bata

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 | ZDNet Photo Gallery

Thanks for the info.

My take on the IE betas, be careful. Since IE is so integrated with the OS, a beta could cause major issues. I might wait until they do the full public release. It may still have bugs, but not as serious as a beta may have. My .02

I'm beta testing IE8 right now and not having any problems. I wouldn't touch IE8 beta 1 with a 10 foot pole. IE8 can be uninstalled from Vista, or didn't you know that.

Running it now, liking what ive seen so far.

Glad to hear you're not have trouble with IE8. And for many people it may work just fine. What if something goes wrong. The system restore fails, the backup fails, the uninstaller fails. If software is in beta, I am presuming it's the whole package, including the uninstaller. What if there's a bug there, then what? I just offered my opinion on the issue. Caveat Emptor if you want to use it. I've seen someone use a pre-release IE7, toasted his system and the uninstaller failed, no rollbacks, no backups. He had to do a complete reinstall of the OS to get clear of the failed IE7 when it was pre-release. Now IE7 is widely used without any issues. And someday IE8 will be the standard. The question is: Do you want to put your system at risk for Microsoft's "testing" software? Do you have that much faith in their uninstaller, that you believe it will fix everything that can go wrong? Personally, I've done the dance with betas of various flavors, and have paid the price (in failed systems). At this point, I'm not willing to put my system on the line for a software test. I'll let someone else deal with the flaws, and when the public roll out is available, then I'll try it. Like I said before, my .02

I beta tested Live OneCare 2.0 and Live OneCare 2.5 and didn't have no problems with either one of those programs and was able to uninstall them, when each was released in final form to the public. When the second beta comes out, there is generally a month or two, before it becomes an official product.

Normally I don't do beta testing, but in this case I decided too, so I can get a feel. The one thing I won't do is beta test an OS, that's the worst thing I can think of.

I am a glutton for punishment. Always fiddleing with software and when I destroy OP system beyoud repair I use microscope to do a military wipe of the hard drive and start over. I think it wards off altimers, but you should see the bottle of TUMS I buy.

I here ya. I've beta tested everything from games, to video drivers, to you name it. But these days, I don't have the time (or the TUMS ) to test out the latest and greatest. I wish everyone only the best with Microsoft betas. Silverlight was a seemingly harmless upgrade, but when people installed it, there was no way to uninstall it (so I've heard). I'm sure that IE8 will turn out just fine and the second wave of beta testers won't brick their PC's.

Best of luck in the future, and thanks again for the article update

I beta test so many different apps it is not even funny. I helped Beta test MalwareBytes' AntiMalware for the longest time (and still do occasionally on the new builds), I am beta testing VMWare Workstation 6.5b, I use 7-Zip 4.6Beta, Opera 9.6 Beta, Fx 3.1a1, Thunderbird 3.a1, and numerous other 'betas'.

The point is that it is a Beta and if you're scared of something like that happening to your system, then don't put it on your system - yes, it *can* happen - but most Beta testers I know (including myself) have things like full system and incremental backups, not to mention things like VMs to test stuff on if absolutely necessary before taking beta items live.

But, your points do not only apply to Beta products - even RTM products can cause the exact same scenarios - as can brownouts, voltage spikes, flood damage and other natural disasters, physical shock, and a whole bevy of other things.

Electronics are, by nature, susceptible to all sorts of problems - its just that, statistically speaking, it is a low percentage of problems that occur, and when it is related to software, a fix is usually around the corner.