'Whidbey' Set for Alpha Testing

Roughly a week after a select group of testers gained access to an early release Microsoft's Yukon beta, "Whidbey" -- a special version of Visual Studio which serves as the face of Yukon for developers -– has welcomed alpha testers.

BetaNews has learned that testers were notified via e-mail of a technical pre-release program that is set to kick off shortly. They can access the online community through Microsoft's BetaPlace Web site.

While the final release is expected sometime in 2004, the beta milestone should be reached in time for October's Professional Developers Conference. Microsoft is also expected to issue the first public release of its next Windows release, code-named Longhorn, to developers at the PDC.

Whidbey alpha testers are urged to log into BetaPlace to receive up to date information and downloads.