Whidbey Beta 2 “Broad Go-Live”

One of the things we are doing in Whidbey Beta 2 is providing a broad Go-Live License agreement. Some of you may remember we provided an ASP.NET Go-Live License with the Beta 2 release of the .NET Framework 1.0, from an old blog post by Scott Guthrie. We view this as a terrific way to help enable our customers to get Whidbey now. This has already been a long product cycle, and our customers don’t want to wait any longer to get their hands on Whidbey. With the broad Go-Live we are giving customers that opportunity!

What products have Go-Live rights?

  • Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 family (excluding Visual Studio Team Foundation Server)
  • .NET Framework 2.0 Beta 2
  • .NET Compact Framework Beta 2
  • SQL Server 2005 Express Edition April CTP
    (a complete list of products will be included in the Go-Live License).    

What does Go-Live mean?   It basically breaks down like this…

  • Internal Deployment, a customer can build an application based on Whidbey Beta 2 and deploy that application in an internal production environment
  • Web Applications, a customer can create a web application targeting Whidbey Beta 2 for the purposes of hosting that application accessible by a third party 
  • ISV deployment, an ISV can build an application with Whidbey targeting the .NET Fx redist, J# redist, the .NET Compact Fx, or SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (important note, we are not giving ISVs redist rights as part of their applications). In order for a customer to use that ISVs application they will need to agree to the Go-Live License agreement and get the redistributable from Microsoft.
  • Native & Managed, the Go-Live covers both native and managed applications.

Important Notes:

Does Go-Live mean I have redistributable rights?   No,as part of the broad Go-Livewe are not providing external redistributable rights in Whidbey Beta 2. Although, an ISV can create an application targeting… say the .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable…, provide that application to a customer, and inform their customer that they need to go to Microsoft to accept the Go-Live License and download the required redistributable in order to be able to run that application.
Will I get product support?   No, Microsoft will not be providing support for Whidbey Beta 2. Although, informal community support is available through online forums, such as newsgroups, blogs, etc. A good resource for this information is https://msdn.microsoft.com/community/.
Will I get servicing support?    No, Microsoft will not be providing any patches, updates or other fixes.
When/how do I Sign up for the Go-Live License?  The Go-Live agreement is available now: https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/golive/.