Ron,
Many software companies make beta versions of their software available. It
is understood that the reason they are making the software available is for
those who want to test it out before it is officially released can do
so. If folks are not interested in doing so they can simply wait for the
official released version and avoid all the beta releases and such.
I must respectfully disagree with you and your assessment of how the public
beta process is impacting HJ. I think that the shipping versions have been
improved because of the fact that HJ allows public betas and thereby gets
the software tested in a wider range of uses than any private beta testing
cycle, which I'm sure HJ also does, could ever hope to accomplish.
All of the announcements about the different versions of 3.31 have clearly
stated that it is a beta or otherwise test version. This means that people
should not consider it an official version and that it is being released
specifically to find bugs that other testing hasn't turned up.
I've been involved on the fringes, sometimes a bit deeper, in software
development for about 10 years. Every program release I was involved with
used beta testing as part of the process. The typical understanding is
that you get to try features and such a bit before the release in exchange
for the understanding that the program may still have a few quirks.
-
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