FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: I know I'll get flamed for this but....

["Alan Barber" <webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'd have to say that most people would understand, well I hope would, that
this is a project in development understand any pre-release stuff (alpha,
beta, etc) would be prone to possible catastrophic events like destroying a
system...

my personal view is that while I'd love to see something out first of the
year I'd rather wait for a true complete "release" of all the software than
something slapped together just to please a few impatient people.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Phipps" <mphipps1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 6:54 PM
Subject: [openbeos] Re: I know I'll get flamed for this but....


>
> Good question. This is an issue of active debate.
> The biggest question is testing and where to draw the line.
> I think that we *COULD* have something to release by 1/1/2002.
> It would NOT be kernel, app_server, media_kit, networking. It would be
print, screensaver,
> maybe input, plus all of the stuff that we are incorporating (mail, open
tracker, open desktop).
>
> The problem is that this stuff would be freshly checked in and all alpha
quality.
> It would mean that people could *well* trash their machines by using it.
> It might wipe their hard drives, treat them badly and generally be a
nuisance.
> It might also be fine.
>
> The real question is this - what do people expect and how much of a let
down
> would alpha quality software be? If everyone is expecting us to have
polished
> software as good as Be's releases, well, don't expect to see anything
soon.
> If people want to sign up for an alpha testing program, maybe that would
be
> the route to go. I don't want to flood our mailing list with "this doesn't
work. You suck".
> OTOH, I don't want people to fade away because we haven't published
anything
> yet.
>
> What do you all think?