Updated the main README file (#2801)

Refreshed the information a bit, and changed wording here and there.

README.md

@@ -3,42 +3,60 @@
 [![GoReportCard](http://goreportcard.com/badge/elastic/beats)](http://goreportcard.com/report/elastic/beats)
 [![codecov.io](https://codecov.io/github/elastic/beats/coverage.svg?branch=master)](https://codecov.io/github/elastic/beats?branch=master)
 
-# Beats - Lightweight shippers for Elasticsearch & Logstash
+# Beats - The Lightweight Shippers of the Elastic Stack
 
-The [Beats](https://www.elastic.co/products/beats) are lightweight processes,
-written in Go, that you install on your servers to capture all sorts of
-operational data like logs, operating system metrics or network packet data,
-and to send it to Elasticsearch, either directly or via Logstash, so it can be
-visualized with Kibana.
+The [Beats](https://www.elastic.co/products/beats) are lightweight data
+shippers, written in Go, that you install on your servers to capture all sorts
+of operational data (think of logs, metrics, or network packet data). The Beats
+send the operational data to Elasticsearch, either directly or via Logstash, so
+it can be visualized with Kibana.
 
-This repository contains libbeat and all the officially supported Beats, in the
-following folders:
+By "lightweight", we mean that Beats have a small installation footprint, use
+limited system resources, and have no runtime dependencies.
 
-Folder  | Description
+This repository contains
+[libbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/libbeat), our Go
+framework for creating Beats, and all the officially supported Beats:
+
+Beat  | Description
 --- | ---
-[libbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/libbeat) | The Go framework for creating new Beats
-[Filebeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/filebeat) | Lightweight log forwarder to Logstash & Elasticsearch
-[Heartbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/heartbeat) | Testing service availability using PING based on ICMP, TCP or higher level protocols
+[Filebeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/filebeat) | Tails and ships log files
 [Metricbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/metricbeat) | Fetches sets of metrics from the operating system and services
-[Packetbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/packetbeat) | Tap into your wire data
-[Winlogbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/winlogbeat) | Sends Windows Event logs
+[Packetbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/packetbeat) | Monitors the network and applications by sniffing packets
+[Winlogbeat](https://github.com/elastic/beats/tree/master/winlogbeat) | Fetches and ships Windows Event logs
 
 In addition to the above Beats, which are officially supported by
 [Elastic](elastic.co), the
 community has created a set of other Beats that make use of libbeat but live
 outside of this Github repository. We maintain a list of community Beats
 [here](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/master/community-beats.html).
 
-## Documentation and Getting Help
+## Documentation and Getting Started
+
+You can find the documentation and getting started guides for each of the Beats
+on the [elastic.co site](https://www.elastic.co/guide/):
+
+* [Beats platform](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/current/index.html)
+* [Filebeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/index.html)
+* [Metricbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/current/index.html)
+* [Packetbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/packetbeat/current/index.html)
+* [Winlogbeat](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/winlogbeat/current/index.html)
+
+
+## Getting Help
+
+If you need help or hit an issue, please start by opening a topic on our
+[discuss forums](https://discuss.elastic.co/c/beats). Please note that we
+reserve GitHub tickets for confirmed bugs and enhancement requests.
+
+## Downloads
 
-You can find the documentation on the [elastic.co
-site](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/current/index.html). If you
-need help, you can open a topic on our [discuss
-forums](https://discuss.elastic.co/c/beats).
+You can download pre-compiled Beats binaries, as well as packages for the
+supported platforms, from [this page](https://www.elastic.co/downloads/beats).
 
 ## Contributing
 
-We'd love working with you! You can help making the Beats better in many ways:
+We'd love working with you! You can help make the Beats better in many ways:
 report issues, help us reproduce issues, fix bugs, add functionality, or even
 create your own Beat.
 
@@ -47,7 +65,7 @@ Please start by reading our [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md) file.
 If you are creating a new Beat, you don't need to submit the code to this
 repository. You can simply start working in a new repository and make use of
 the libbeat packages, by following our [developer
-guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/current/new-beat.html).
+guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/libbeat/master/new-beat.html).
 After you have a working prototype, open a pull request to add your Beat to the
 list of [community
 Beats](https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/master/libbeat/docs/communitybeats.asciidoc).