What people seem to be missing here is that this is a BETA. There are always issues with beta software. You should never let beta software touch your production machine OR YOUR IRREPLACEABLE DATA. Of course everyone is practicing good data backup practices so this is a moot point... right?

I'm guessing the author of this article doesn't know the first thing about software development. The next thing after BETA software is ALPHA software and even that has 'bugs'. As we all know, sometimes RTM software has 'bugs', especially if it involves many millions of lines of code.

What's the big deal? Beta code is as advertised, not for use in a production environment, not for use with important or critical data. You download, install and use a Beta application, you must expect to have some non-optimal (read: bad) results. Given the the apparent crying and gnashing of teeth over this issue, I'll also bet that the affected MP3s weren't backed-up either. Noobs!

Reader comments so far are on the mark. The author of the article gives me the impression of having a chip on her shoulder from the get-go. Though Microsoft always toots its own horn over-loudly about their products, to its credit, it's always forthcoming about the products' shortcomings and it patches them.

Given that this refers to a Beta release and that anyone with a shred of competency wouldn't expose un-backed up data to a Beta's tender mercies, Julie comes across in a decidedly over-judgemental manner.

I for one look forward to the maturation of this release. I've totally skipped the Vista chapter in Microsoft's book; though my trusted XP Pro installations have served me well, I'm ready for the next step, so long as it's not a step backward.

I love how the original author is unknown in this article...I suppose that the author doesn't want to be known in the general public for making assinine remarks like this.
Ed
web/gadget guru

The author has a point although she or he is indeed making it in an idiotic way.

The point is that the software gobbling MP3 files is such an obvious flaw that it's developer should have caught it in alpha. But you know why the developer didn't? I'll tell you, it is because of Microsoft's culture of NIH. Notice that this only affects mp3s, not wma files. Undoubtedly the internal development and testing of Windows Media Player/Media Center is being done with WMA files and the mp3 support is being tacked on as an afterthought.

Microsoft really needs to concentrate on writing software and not reinventing the wheel all of the time with their "Embrace and Extend" philosophy.

There was a time in the not too distant past (dinosaurs had finally died off)where Beta software was pre-release, not free user testing. At the Beta stage you were looking for what is now referred to as the "experience", a euphemism for how easy and intuitive is it?

Sure, bugs were found and noted, BUT, it wasn't the main focus because that was what the Alpha testing was for. Problem is, an up and coming software company changed all that, by asking which users wanted to help test software. It was really straightforward, simple, with the idea of helping catch bugs in a working environment, prior to final usability testing. And oh, btw, this is now Beta testing.

So the same company that wanted to make it's own rules is still pulling the same c**p, but the difference now is, you all don't remember when things were good, when Beta meant it's almost done, and patches were done in binary format without having to do a partial install :)

Good warning about the MP3's, and really a bummer if you were the one who lost paid for files.

my 5,254,214 mp3s all work fine...