BETA ? what is it

[Stephanee]

I'm new here. Can you explain what a " beta " download is , why i should take it or not. I'm on Vista. Thanks for your help.
Stephanie

[techieMoe]

In software terms, "Beta" usually means "still under testing, but mostly complete." Another term you might see is "Alpha," which means "definitely incomplete, just a proof of concept." Both alpha and beta software are only to be run at your own risk. They may have major bugs and (in the worst case) can cause strange behavior on your underlying operating system.

[elija]

To Add to Moe's summary; the higher the number of a beta the more iterations it has gone through and in theory at least the more stable it should be. The next step up from a beta is a "Release Candidate" which means we think we are ready to go but don't quite have the confidence to do so. The real difference of course is that in the beta phase, features can be added or removed and in release candidate the only changes will be fixes.

Some software never seems to make it out of beta and is perfectly usable, look at just about anything by Google. Some beta releases can be absolute disasters.

Using beta software is a gamble.