Okay, I think everyone needs to take a second to breath and understand a few things. First summer in the Northern Hemisphere runs from June 21-September 23, not on when school is out, so technically speaking Frontier is releasing the Beta, one day after summer ends.
Secondly, we are lucky to get a Beta like this. Tons of companies have closed Betas, either for creators, or just for a special pre-selected group who have to sign NDAs and the like.
Third, I don't doubt it was their intention to get it out in the more "traditional summer" (June-August), but as we all should know, games are not easy things to make, and projects are put behind by issues that come up. I would much prefer a much more stable Beta that doesn't crash every time I try to play, that comes out later, than a Beta full of bugs that makes it frustrating to play.
Finally, and not to sound like a broken record, but we are lucky to get a Beta. It's for two weeks, and when the Beta closes, there is a month for the Frontier Devs to fix absolutely everything that everyone found out so it is as stable as possible for November 5th.
On a personal note, seeing all this whining is sad, maybe I am just used to this kind of thing with any kind of software release, but I think we have been incredibly lucky to get a new zoo game, and are lucky its from a studio with experience with animals like Frontier, along with the skill to pull everything else this game will have together into one neat package that you don't need a super computer to run. Was I disappointed? Ya, for about a heartbeat, then I moved on and rewatched the trailer with the new animals, images and screenshots. I was honestly more disappointed reading the Forums this morning.
Thank you to the Frontier Community Team, and to the Development team. I know you all have been working incredibly hard to get this game ready for everyone, and I appreciate the hours (and likely overtime hours and crunch) that you have, and will put in for us to have such an amazing game.