Is beta testing safe to do?

Hi amember,

PeterBreis0807 is correct.

From numerous vendors I've beta tested many software products it's quite a bit of fun. Though often the product would be stable as the Rock of Gibraltar, other times:
1. It wouldn't go so far as load
2. It may just crash not effecting the OS. Relaunched all was okay.
3. It may lock the system at worst necessitating a reboot

Back in the Windows days in order to get a system working properly from an errant beta program (rare when it happens) I'd have to reformat the HDD. In all that they never hurt the hardware.

Strongly I caution you: Regardless of your OS never-ever use your everyday production computer for beta testing. In my beta testing days I had one system dedicated for beta testing nothing else. If you don't have another system you can dedicate to beta testing I'd recommend not beta testing.

Understand, Murphy can be anywhere, lives wherever he chooses, shows up when least expected or wanted. Don't tempt him. 🙂 This way you'll thoroughly enjoy the beta testing process.

Cordially,

RicD

There ARE some negatives/dangers with beta testing, but also remember that there are many products that are currently shipping that are called "beta"... the meaning of beta has changed a lot since the old days. It could be anywhere from "we're really just out of alpha, help us find bugs" to "we think we've got all the bugs, but our equipment is limited, how does it work on yours?" to "the app's really solid, but give us an idea of ways we could change it". While all the categories are rewarding in some way (from finding a bug that would have hurt them if it was released), the last one means that you could really have a say in how the interface is laid out and, in a real sense, you could positively impact many thousands of users that may use the code in the future. Plus, you might even get your name in lights (or an about box 🙂

I know you've already made your decision, but if you're given another opportunity, I'd say take the proper precaution of getting something like a Time Machine (you should have a backup strategy even if you're NOT beta testing 🙂 and give it a try. That way, you manage the downsides... And, don't worry about experience. Many devs would rather have a novice that honestly can tell them (without prior extensive experience with Adobe or Microsoft or even OSX) that the app is hard to use or a particular interface choice doesn't make sense. Anything they can do to make their app easier expands their target market greatly so good feedback by novice users (we all used to be one!) can sometimes be invaluable!

I know this is off topic for the Pages discussions, but it's worth exploring in order to see if beta testing "fits" you before dismissing it completely.

As a veteran of both software development and beta testing let me warn you of two issues:

1) the software you are testing is likely to be unstable in both known and unknown ways. So the program may freeze and crash while it is running. It may also mangle files so it isn't a good idea to use beta software with time critical mission work.

2) the software might bring instability to your entire system or a subsystem of your computer. For example, Safari 4 which is a beta product, isn't a self-contained program. It requires the installation of frameworks that can be shared by other programs. So some of us haven't just run into problems with the new Safari but also Mail, for example. My habit of keeping a clone of my system dates back to the days when I was a regular beta tester (as opposed to being the public beta tester that I am today).

There are two programs that are free which will make an exact duplicate (hence the term clone) of your hard drive. CarbonCopyCloner is donateware and SuperDuper! is a shareware program but the developer makes the cloning function available totally free with no time restrictions. I use SuperDuper! to clone my hard drive before I do anything potentially dangerous (like installing a system update). When Safari 4 (beta) was released into the wild I ran SuperDuper before installing it.

My motto is "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean the world isn't out to get me." <grin>

I was beta tester for AppleWorks 624 and AppleWorks 627.
And, as I respect NDA I never put a beta version on the net !
Some beta testers can't write the same 😟

I assumed that they will ask me to beta test iWork but they didn't. Maybe because I'm most often writing that this or that is wrongly done that resting on my knees praying St Steve ;-(

I was just asked to test the iWork '08 French version after delivery 😟

If they change their advice, I'm ready for iWork '10 (they know my address) 😉

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE samedi 7 mars 2009 17:20:31)

I assumed that they will ask me to beta test iWork but they didn't.

I was invited to beta test CW because of my critical posts at the old CW forum on AOL. (Does that date me or what?) When the program moved into Apple's sphere I remained a member of the team but like you I wasn't invited to join the iWork team.

Just prior to the time that AW6 was finally released I was asked if I'd like to be an OS X beta tester. I'm not sure exactly how that came about but I assumed someone from AW moved to the OS group. At any rate, I signed and returned the NDA and over the next couple weeks was told on several occasions I would be hearing from the beta team leader soon. Never did and about that same time I also stopped hearing from my AW contact. I've always assumed that there was a massive change of policy at Apple regarding beta testing. I've heard similar stories from others who used to be Apple beta testers.

Oh, I have no doubt that the suite is beta tested - but I have every reason to believe that A) the current group is too small, B) it is too homogenous, and C) the beta testers are either specifically told not to comment on user interface issues or are ignored when they comment on it

Kyn Drake wrote:
Or because it's hard to find testers, experienced with Office or AppleWorks,

It's not hard to find betatesters.
Look at the list of Top Users in Pages or Numbers forums.
I'm sure that most of them would be OK to beta test.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE samedi 7 mars 2009 19:46:54)

No, I wasn't saying it wasn't hard to find testers. Just hard to find ones that wouldn't try to suggest that the resulting app should work

a) more like Microsoft Office
or
b) more like AppleWorks
or
c) more like one of the free Office apps (see a)

🙂

I hardly think that is an issue to be concerned with. As Yvan said, take a look at the top posters of this forum - there is a huge amount of experience here. Most of us are both cheerleaders of iWork and frankly critical of its shortcomings. Experience, clearheaded, and positive - traits I'd want in my beta testing personnel. But I'm willing to bet almost none of the users here are on the beta testing team.

Kyn Drake wrote:
No, I wasn't saying it wasn't hard to find testers. Just hard to find ones that wouldn't try to suggest that the resulting app should work

a) more like Microsoft Office
or
b) more like AppleWorks
or
c) more like one of the free Office apps (see a)

🙂

Beta testers are not asked to define the product, they are asked to search possible bugs.
It's a huge difference.
As far as I remember I never posted a comment about the GUI when I tested AppleWorks.
I know that some posters here disagree with me but my point of view is that defining a GUI is an intellectual task which can't rely on user's votes.

Must I add that I would never ask Apple to mimic Office or openOffice which are the kind of beast which I hate, what we call, in France "usines à gaz".
To be short, I'm not sure that a stack of features make an artistic creation (no, I will not give names) but I'm sure that it doesn't make a good program.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE samedi 7 mars 2009 21:01:13)

It won't hurt your computer but be prepared for the beta program to be unstable and crash.