Beta and alpha versions.

[ceprateek]

Please tell me the difference between alpha and beta versions as I really don't understand the difference as according to me both are just the same?

[smith]

They refer to two major stages that a version of software goes through during its testing and developing period.

During the alpha stage, new features are added , and during beta stage active debugging takes place.

When most bugs are removed the sofware development reaches stable stage.

For more details:
Software release life cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[JenniP]

Or this from a developers point of view

Alpha : I expect it to crash
Beta : I hope it will work and not crash but it will will crash
Release Candidate : I think we've fixed everything but watch it crash once you get it on someone else's PC.

In general unless your fairly skilled with Computers and wont throw your computer out the window when it becomes unreliable its not worth touching Beta's and certainly not Alpha's.

However a lot of Open Source code never actually gets released so it sits in Alpha or Beta for ages most of it is stable enough to use and should really have a "Released" tag on it.

Jen

[Smash]

I never use Alpha or Beta stage scripts.

Apart form the posibilities of the progrms containing errors and other 'goodies', you end up having to uninstall the program to then install the stable version - which can lead to a load of issues aswell - the Registry for one!

Some programs never get developed to the stable stage, developers give up on it, or become distracted with other projects - and so your chance of support with any of them is low.

[ceprateek]

Thanks for great information everybody I was really not expecting such response. Its a great forum for newbies like me.

[niki]

Alpha release is for the employees of the company and beta release is for that public and companies use this strategy for testing the product effectively.

[funtoosh]

Graet information niki and even I was looking forward to post the same content.