Microsoft surely knew that they could very well not afford to fail with Windows 7 after seeing just what a huge flop (relatively speaking, of course) Windows Vista was, and hence they roped in 8 million testers in their biggest beta ever to date. Microsoft ensured that there was only one beta (build 7000) and one RC (7100) to keep things simple, where both of them were only exclusively available to MSDN, TechNet subscribers and Microsoft Connect testers for but a few days. These builds then went public for all and sundry to give it a go, and they were specially polished up to feel more like RTM candidates compared to a traditional unfinished pre-release version. Looks like Windows 7 could be the new XP, eh?