Perpetual Beta, what is the go, when (if ever) are they going to release REAL freaking versions. Or is calling it a 'beta' just some excuse to allow more than the usual number of flaws and bugs in the release.
What is the go with upgrades and software additions on beta versions ? I thought you developed software, then you test it, then you release it. What are we to be the 'test subjects' for crappy coding principles ?
Anyone ever watch "Code Rush" interesting doco about mozilla, in those days there were interested in patents, copyright and BUG COUNTS, they would not release if the code was buggy, they even tracked it and worked hard to resolve problems BEFORE RELEASE, not after.
That is the basic problem with FOSS in general, its the lets experiment on the user, to find our bugs.
And when bugs are brought to our attention, we flop about, triage it and try to make a 'work around'. NO, they dont sent that code back to the guy who wrote it and tell him to fix it and resubmit.
When was the last 'code review' meetings for any FOSS project, what software testing suites are empoloyed, what unit testing, requirements documentation and what correct software engineering procedues and practices are employed.
It seems FOSS is still as it has always been, you just keep trying different things until something works, have enough people trying enough different things and one day something will 'sort of' work as intended. Great,, commit..
And if you dont think this is the way it 'works' for FOSS just have a look at the massive list of KNOWN bugs on the Ubuntu web site, last I looked it was approaching 60,000 KNOWN bugs, and who knowns how many unknown ones.
Considering the list is getting larger not smaller and the fact that most bugs will go undetected until the most critical time, means that 60,000 figure is actualy low compared to reality.
Linux has about as many parts as a modern jet liner, except the jet has a higher number of "DIFFERENT" components. Software components are basically limited to machine instructions code, and whatever interpreter ontop of that.
Yet a modern jet aircraft with more complexity than Linux and GNU will have possibly 1 or 2 or very few UNKNOWN BUGS and ZERO KNOWN ONES..
Why is there such a huge difference, one reason is the methodology of FOSS development, its 'hacking' of the worst kind, you hack away at a problem and hope you stumble on the 'fix'.
Very little in the way of specification, functionality or requirements documentation.
No quality control,
Perpetual Beta, (expecting users to be testers, and not users).
But I digress, basically you should not have whole number version that is 'beta', and be announcing the next beta.
(dont you remember the rule, NEVER USE Beta software)..
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