Windows 8 Beware of the Developer after march

davehc

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Ok Randy. The expiry date is, of course, listed in the "Winver" window also. But I was more concerned about advising users that they may lose all their data after march. I do read that some are actually using it as their primary OS!
As with all early releases of S/W from MS (or many other developers as well) these are available for limited times for 2 reasons:

1) many people using the S/W will find many of the bugs. More eyes will find more problems, and it doesn't cost MS a cent.

2) allows many more people to develop and submit apps for Win 8. Again this does not cost MS a cent and us many more apps earlier than otherwise.

I suspect that at some point in time around that time frame, the next release will be out. Probably a beta version, who knows.
 
I fully realise that Ted. I have been grabbing the opportunity to test early releases from MS, whenever available. But, in legacy releases, we were always, or normally , told, that if we wished to install a subsequent update, or release, it was usually necessary to uninstall previous versions. This gave you opportunities to save certain functions. MS have been up front here, and have said clearly that you will probably lose access to this release, should you continue to use it after the expiry date.
 
Thanks for the heads up Dave. While I suspected the time bomb, was blissfully ignorant of any dates associated with it. Good to know in advance so thanks again
Randy.
 
Ok Randy. The expiry date is, of course, listed in the "Winver" window also. But I was more concerned about advising users that they may lose all their data after march. I do read that some are actually using it as their primary OS!
 
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I have read he same thing. In fact one of the posters in this forum I think was mentioning she did not have any other licensed OS to use.

Using an early release, or even any release before RTM is flirting with danger at best. Most experts agree an individual should not rely on any release prior to RTM as their primary OS because of the probability of numerous changes, some of which will undoubtedly break something.

The only time I might think of this is if I were to have a good Image of my primary system to go back to, and all my data were on it's own partition, backup up separately from the Image. But this scenario seems un-necessary with dual booting capabilities.

This just seems to be a chance not worth taking.
 
I don't want to insult anyone, so please.......

But in my wildest nightmare, I could not conceive anyone wanting to, or trying to, install an Alpha or Beta version of anything for permanent use.
It might be technically Legal, but so is blowing your brains out.
It plainly says it's for Developmental (evaluation) use only and anyone who's been around a while, knows it has a very short life span.

One Exception. I did adopt Firefox as my main browser on the first Beta release and followed that with every update till the final Ver. 1.0 on their worldwide release date. But, right next to my FF icon on my desktop, was the big blue e of Internet Explorer. No problemo!
Initially, there were several web sites that I needed to go to that required IE 6 or better. Firefox has since remedied that problem.

It's not quite that simple with OS's though, unless you have each OS on it's own hard drive, like I do, even when I'm testing a new OS, in Beta, I still back it up to a second partition on that drive, as soon as I have it set up to my liking. Ya jus never know when a Beta will take off down a dirt road and leave you stranded.

Be SAFE and never sorry! Eh?
The Doctor

PS: I'm using Win-8 for exactly what it was intended for..... to Develop my own pack of tweaks, tips and enhancements, so when it finally hits the stores and I'm required to set it up for my customers, I'll already have all my scripts and batch files on my Utilities disk ready for application.
 
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