Beware of the beta

A friend of mine and I were discussing today the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2007 and how it was currently in beta testing. This led to a side conversation regarding my thoughts on beta products in general and it occurred to me noobies could use this information.

A beta product, when referring to software, is a version of software that is still in need of a lot of testing. It still needs the bugs worked out. It is NOT a pre-release which so many people like to believe. It’s hard to resist downloading a beta. Heck, it feels like you are getting a sneak peek at the software for free. But beware… beta releases come with relatively little support and no guarantees that they work. In fact, what you really are doing when you use a beta piece of software is doing the testing for the company that wrote the software. You may be the person they are looking for to report that the new software causes half of your other software to stop working… lucky you!

And let’s not forget that the beta eventually expires and MUST be removed from your computer before you can install the final “released” version of the software. Might as well keep your fingers crossed too that the uninstall doesn’t have any bugs in it as well.

Long story, short. When you see the word beta, resist the temptation and stay far, far away from it. There are plenty of other people who are willing to suffer through the beta while you patiently wait for the final release.