Microsoft’s RDC beta expires; no new release available

Eddie Hargreaves — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:29:38 +0000

Apple promised to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007 and Microsoft released a Universal Binary version of Office in January 2008, but a Remote Desktop Connection Client that runs natively on Intel Macs is still in beta. Except now that beta has expired… sort of.

Microsoft released RDC 2.0 Beta 2 on October 25, 2007, with the release note that it would expire on March 31, 2008. Users launching it today will receive the message shown here:

You might think that the insistence to upgrade to the final release version means there is a final release version available. Yet clicking the default button simply takes the user to the Mactopia home page. Clicking on the Remote Desktop link there reveals that the “lastest” version is still 2.0 Beta 2, which, according to the message given on launch, is “out of date.”

Here’s how I see Microsoft’s options for this situation:

Ideal Option: Release the final version of RDC 2.0 for download
Near-Ideal Option: Release Beta 3 with a future expiration date
Acceptable Option: Continue to let us use Beta 2 and stop telling us it’s out of date
Worst Option: Beta 2 stops working completely and nothing new can be downloaded

Oh, and maybe someone over there should double-check the spelling in the dialog boxes.

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Microsoft’s RDC beta expires; no new release available