>Do you *really* believe the gradual release of the beta to the public was not pre-determined (probably correctly) in a way so as not to jeopardize conference registrations?

Charles,

Call me a romanticist if you will, but I don't think so. Certainly, the possibility exists that it was a pre-determined ploy, but the only conference that ever was publizied as getting the beta beforehand was DevCon. The others, such as the German DevCon and Whilfest, had no advance publicity that the beta would be given out there. It wasn't until after the "clamoring" for the beta after DevCon, that the decision was publicly nade known.

I mentioned earlier in this thread (I think), that because of postings from the Foxteam that the product was being customer driven was a feature. Call me muddle-headed if you like, but I see this as evidence of that.