[flyinpc]

Hello, 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.

[Baez]

Beta is the final stage of a program or OS before it's official release (usually dubbed as 1.0, anything lower is a beta, alpha or pre-alpha release). Most of the time the program is stable enough to run it without errors but not normally as stable as an official release. If you post the program you're looking at we can give you our opinion of it.

For more info on the release stages of a program look here: Software release life cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Mak213]

Actually Beta is the 2nd stage for a program.

Alpha, Beta RC also known as Release Canidate.

Depending on what the program is and who it is from. Some companies only do Betas and skip the Alpha and RC stages while others do Alpha and Beta before release.

Mozilla is a Alpha, Beta company. Microsoft does all 3. But their Alpha are called Milestone Builds.

But to specifically answer the question a Beta is a program that is still in testing that is not qualified for everyday use. There are still bugs, and glitches in the programming tht can make it not work on your system, cause havoc on your system, or not work as expected.

If you are not familiar with Beta testing, no offense but asking what a Beta is qualifies as just that, i would steer clear of anything with the Beta Label. It might not work or cause corruption on your system. Last thing you want.

[CalcProgrammer1]

However, if you find that a beta release has some features that the current stable release doesn't have (features you really want/need), then feel free to try out the beta. I always use the latest software, even if it does mean beta releases. I rarely run into anything major...in fact, using the Windows 7 Milestone 3 (Alpha release) right now.

Basically, a beta release will often have more features and improvements but may have some bugs left in it. A stable release will be the most solid and bug-free release, but may be lacking newer features.