Luckily (or unluckily), I'm one of the hotmail users chosen to try out Microsoft's new Live Mail.
Though I'm guessing they pretty much chose everyone who applied, but used the words:
"We want you, one of our Hotmail VIPs, to experience the next generation of Web-based e-mail - Windows Live Mail Beta. We've been testing the service, and we feel like it's now ready for some of our best Hotmail customers like you, to try it out and tell us what you think."
...to hype it all up and make you feel special.
Who else feels special?
On first impressions I was a bit disappointed - after using it both in IE and Firefox, there was a significant difference in the UI. But I guess this is to be expected as not only is it in Beta, but it's also a Microsoft product.
It's a nice change to hotmail, but all they've really done is change it from the classic hotmail look to an Outlook style web-interface, driven by Exchange.