How long can a product be in beta?
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
The VS2005 product is still in beta (despite it's being "released"). We were in a tele-video conference yesterday with a MS rep going over what's new in ASP.Net 2.0, and a couple of the wizards he tried to show off absolutely refused to work. I also noticed that the speed of the IDE we suffered through via a remote connection was about the same as we experience when we run it on a local box. "Beta" doesn't mean what it used to mean. ------- sig starts "I've heard some drivers saying, 'We're going too fast here...'. If you're not here to race, go the hell home - don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Why don't you tie a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
To me, beta means the features are frozen - all that is left to do is fix the bugs. However, a lot of companies now are muddying the waters by calling products "beta" that are clearly still having features added to it. I guess it absolves them of any responsiblity of providing a product that is stable. If it screws up, it's a beta! If you lose all your work, it's a beta!
My: Blog | Photos "Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in." -- Confucious
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They keep "beta" because Google has big plans. They look deep into the future, thinking at features which can not be imagined yet by normal brains. And finally, a beta is just a beta, no more implications or responsabilities.
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
Vikram A Punathambekar wrote:
But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years...
The latest incarnation of Google Groups has been in beta for at least this long.
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
That's nothing compared to WINE: "This is release 0.9 of Wine, a free implementation of Windows on Unix. After 12 years of development, this release marks the beginning of the beta testing phase." (http://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-announce/2005-October/000064.html)
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To me, beta means the features are frozen - all that is left to do is fix the bugs. However, a lot of companies now are muddying the waters by calling products "beta" that are clearly still having features added to it. I guess it absolves them of any responsiblity of providing a product that is stable. If it screws up, it's a beta! If you lose all your work, it's a beta!
My: Blog | Photos "Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in." -- Confucious
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
To me, beta means the features are frozen - all that is left to do is fix the bugs.
Ok most programs I know are in permanent beta by that definition :P
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
A long time. The HTML editor I use has been beta for oh 4 years. :) "Simplicity is more complicated than you think. But it’s well worth it” (Ron Jeffries)
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
WINE has been beta for 11 or 12 years :p xacc.ide-0.1-rc4 released! Download and screenshots
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
for me, it means like ... "use it, but if it crash your computer no responsabilities can be held against the provider"
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If it's a huge thing like an OS (read Longhorn), it would be under development for a long time continuously. But Gmail has been in beta for 1.5+ years, and I don't think it's undergoing major changes. :confused: Anybody else think it's weird? :~ Why do you think they haven't stripped the 'beta' tag yet? Cheers, Vikram.
"When I read in books about a "base class", I figured this was the class that was at the bottom of the inheritence tree. It's the "base", right? Like the base of a pyramid." - Marc Clifton.
Where I work, we have a set of features decided for every release and there is beta release before the final one, with most important features in it. So the customers can take a look at it in advance. ankita
