Microsoft Windows XP SP2 – RC2
Something which I forgot to mention from last week’s twilight dev conference was the announcement that XPSP2 RC2 will be out soon (I guess due to timing, they couldn’t release that to us, so they (the Microsoft presenters) tried to make sure everyone who attended received a copy of it.
For devs and IT Pros evaluating this software prior to it’s eventual release in August (well, that’s what the indication from the presenter [Danny Beck] was for the release) this is quite significant. Why? Well it means we can test that what we are working on will work on this major release/update to Windows XP. And for the IT Pros, they can familiarise themselves with it so that if they need to support it, they’ll know in advance what’s going on.
And it’s significant in my opinion to Microsoft because the more testers there are, it hopefully will mean the more feedback they receive from the community. Honestly, observing this community push by Microsoft through blogging and other means is quite significant.
Think about what open source has had for years? A lot of community feedback. Ok, sure it was only among like minded individuals, but still quite significant. (Though sometimes there was a bit too much feedback). And then think about user groups.
Would you rather go to some big juggernaught of a company that pushes out software but are hardly accessible to your everyday developer, or goto someone at your local user group? The dude at the user group of course!
I think it’s great that Microsoft is openly supporting our local user groups, and do have representatives from Microsoft at the user group meetings occasionally. Which is great, I like to meet people 
[Yes yes, so I seem shy at times... But that's another issue 
]
That reminds me, I liked that tickbox/checkbox (whatever you want to call it) that asked why you went to the event (or something like that), where it said something along the lines of “For networking with peers”. Seriously though, I think that is something quite significant.
Especially for someone like me getting my feet on the ground in the industry, having just graduated last year November (2003). I want to meet people, I want to make contacts, I want to get my name out there. Ok, so now you know one of my motives when attending these events, aside from the learning things part.
Hrm, this is starting to sound like a personal type post, doesn’t it? Well, this is my blog, I determine the content
On that note, can anyone have guess my age? I’m still relatively young compared to a lot of others in industry. But definately not totally inexperienced, due to many of my subjects being industry based.
Wow, the 4th Tuesday of the month is next Tuesday. That means, it’s time for… The Melbourne .NET UserGroups meeting (yes, notice the S at the end… that’s AusDev/MDNUG. Another joint Usergroup meeting).