Please, post the name of all alpha/beta (or other other development version) apps installed in any of your systems right now. Give details if you want. At the moment of posting this, I'm testing the following: - K-Meleon 1.6 Beta 2 - uTorrent 3.0 Alpha
Google Chrome 10.0.634.0 dev. I use a browser almost all day, so I want the latest ("the best") version available, otherwise I prefer stable versions of software only.
Norton 360 Version 5.0 Beta Reasons: Find potential bugs. Get to know 360 more. See how it runs on my new computer.
I was still using version 5.1.884 (Pre-Release) and now (I formatted my laptop) I'm using the final stable version (5.1.889). Just use the final versions of the software, so I avoid many problems.
I decided a long time ago to stay away from the beta stuff. I just don't have much tolerance anymore for bugs, so using beta software is just inviting trouble for me... I can wait for final releases...
No betas for me, at least not at this time. I seem to have my hands full with the so-called final versions I am running. I'm trying to achieve a balance between always working for my computer and always having my computer work for me. Running release candidates and betas would skew that balance completely out of whack. However, I do appreciate all the brave souls who take on the challenge and fun of running betas!
One of the more interesting beta projects I've worked with are the unofficial upgrades for 9X systems. These upgrades have greatly improved the performance, reliability, and overall abilities of 9X systems. A partial list of what's been fixed: The ability to work with hard drives larger than 137GB. The ability to utilize more than 1GB RAM. The ability to copy and move files over 2GB. Reliable USB 2.0 compatibility with most external devices. Most of the memory/resource usage issues that plagued 98 have been largely solved or greatly reduced. Stable uptime is now measured in days or weeks, not in hours. Greatly improved compatibility with current software that was never intended to run on 9X systems. Visual improvements including transparent icon labels, fading menus, 32bit icons, clear type, natural file sorting, and more modern themes. This particular 98 system is installed on an older Dell (P4-2.4GHZ, 1GB RAM) that originally had XP-Pro. It's running the current version of SeaMonkey, a recent version of PDF Exchange, and the most recent flash player plugin. It boots in 20 seconds flat, has a display resolution of 1600X900, 32 bit true color, and is much faster than XP on similar hardware. Thanks largely to its smaller attack surface and its incompatibility with most NT system targeting malware, 9X can be made reasonably secure quite easily. It's become fun to use and experiment with, thanks to active development on the KernelEX and Revolutions Pack projects, along with several other upgrades available here.
Depending on the specs of your notebook, you could be very pleasantly surprised. Do make a full system backup before installing these unofficial updates. KernelEX is at version 4.5 final and Revolutions Pack is at version 9.7.2. While they work well for most who have tried them, the number of people testing them is limited, so treat them as experimental to start. There's a lot of XP software that has yet to be tried. There are also potential security implications with KernelEX because of this increased compatibility. Lots of new territory to explore.
Mainly only test on virtual machines. Only on main machine if it fixes problems, and/or provides new very meaningful features, and/or is the only version available for me.
I only install Alphas, betas, or RC's on test machines. I do a lot of beta or QA testing to make sure bugs I may experience have a good chance of being found before they make it onto my work machines.
