This just in from Wininformant:
According to my sources, Microsoft
will soon ship an unexpected "refresh build" of Windows Vista to its
technical beta testers and some corporate customers. Previously, the
company had been shipping only semi-monthly Community
Technical Preview (CTP) builds of Vista to testers and other audiences,
including MSDN subscribers. The refresh build is currently build 5342,
I"m told. It will require different product keys than the previous CTP.
It"s
unclear why Microsoft has chosen to ship a Vista refresh build at this
time, though I"m told the company is using it as a testing board for
the extensive feedback they"ve gotten since the last CTP, which was
issued in February. According to my sources, the refresh build will not
meet CTP quality measurements, and will ship only in the Vista Ultimate
edition, for both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) systems.
Microsoft
originally expected to ship a CTP build in April, though that release
could slip until May, according to sources. That CTP should be made
available to the public via Web downloads.