Windows Vista–the next version of Windows, formerly code-named Longhorn–hits a major milestone today with the release of Beta 1 code, Microsoft announced. Microsoft also released the first beta of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP (as well as the version bundled with Windows Vista).
The preproduction code being released today–several days before the August 3 deadline Microsoft gave itself when it announced the name of the OS last week–will be made available immediately as a download to 10,000 technical beta testers, most of them from the enterprise information technology and developer community.
Pictures are allowed to be shown by people in the beta, so that’s a huge improvement over the last beta! Check out the article at PC World.