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Date:      Thu, 05 Oct 1995 18:56:34 -0700
From:      "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
To:        Robert Withrow <witr@rwwa.com>
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Another rushed beta test? 
Message-ID:  <8020.812944594@time.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 05 Oct 1995 20:16:27 EDT." <199510060016.UAA27656@spooky.rwwa.com> 

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>From what I can gather we are going to have another rushed
> beta test.  By that I mean that there will be something like
> a week beta test of the final product before it is pressed
> onto CD.  Is this correct?

But we DO take the point of view that the snaps are BETA test targets,
especially given that all the changes we've applied since 2.0.5 are
either low-impact or on the critical bug-fixing path.  Some here may
have some criticism about the way some changes were taken across, and
that's an entirely different topic that we can elect to embark upon
later, if so desired, but I don't think that anyone can say that the
SNAPs haven't constituted a form of BETA testing.  I've certainly
received more valuable feedback from the 3 different SNAPs I've done
than I *ever* received from any of the single BETAs we did in the
past.  The BETAs were insufficiently timely or "granular" in scope
(e.g. carefully and incrementally changed over the previous release)
and I can't say that they ever really lived up to their billing.  We
*called* them BETAs, but for us and the users they generally had a
different meaning and usage.

> releases.  They are more like alpha releases.  A beta test
> is supposed to test the final product to verify the 
> *non-existence* of critical bugs...  I don't have the
> resources to test alpha-quality software whereas I 
> *can* test beta-quality software, give adequate time
> (which means more than just one week).  Testing software
> implies *cost* for many otherwise willing people who
> *could* give valuable input if this were handled 
> differently.

We're doing this as best we can given limitations on our own resources
and the resources of the community.  I'd furthermore say that the last
couple of SNAPs have been BETA quality, so you're free to jump in at
any time, with or without the BETA label.

					Jordan




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