In the aftermath of the Live Plus firmware v.1.03.40 debacle, I had a thought…
Future "Limited public release"s can be offered as they always have been, to the first few hundred Guinea pigs willing to try things out, but when there’s a specific issue that WD is trying to deal with, the firmware can be offered as a password-protected RAR, and WD can send the password to only those at whom the limited limited release is aimed.
Sure, there’ll still be someone who hosts the file and the password and starts spreading it around, but it would seem like WD could have a bit better control over distributon of packages that aren’t really aimed for distribution.
“If you have not been sent a password to test this update and see if it resolves the issues found in the last Beta, you will not be able to install the update…” or something like that.
Might stop Joe User from just downloading things (s)he shouldn’t be.
Then again, it could be more headache than it’s worth.
