Francis, I've been around for a while
and can not think of a single product that has ever had a year-long 'beta'
(I do know some that should have...;-). I do agree that ensuring that the
target audience for the July release must be clearly defined and that its
web presence must make this obvious but AFAIK the thing we're working on
is *not* a beta (but also agree that it will not be up to eclipse's existing
production quality).
Gmail, Google news and many other web products are examples of long beta times. Google has in fact sort of redefined the "beta" label. I think they have raised the bar for the definition of a beta, so that it does not imply a low quality release. And in fact, having it be "beta" in this sense (and beta for a year even) could be viewed as being modern and cool. And you even say it's not up to Eclipse's existing production quality, so I think "beta" (or technology preview if you like) is quite appropriate. It certainly should not be named in a way where it is easily confused with something that is well burned in.
