Forgive the rant, but it's interesting that there's so much attention being given to the term "beta" when it comes to software. This could be yet another great example of how insular technical people can be, not that we needed more examples.

The vast majority of people -- and it's vast -- had no idea what beta meant in the first place. None. So why is such a big deal being made now?

I'm not quite sure. Maybe it's because developers are really concerned about covering their asses. And what better way to cover your ass than by saying your released software is beta? Or by giving it some version number less than 1.0 and hiding that version number in the Help menu. Then if people run into catastrophic problems you can say "didn't you see you were using Product beta version 0.94? Didn't you read the EULA?" Yeah right.

It's all meaningless. People won't and do not care about version numbers or alpha, beta, gamma or even epsilon. If you release software people will use it. They'll inadvertently find 1000 different ways to break it. They'll pack it in their kid's lunches and use it as a hat on cold days. Maybe it will even do what it's supposed to do. Once it's out there though, it's out there.

If the software is free they might forgive you if it eats their homework or makes a mess on the rug. If they ever run into a catastrophic data munging bug in something they paid for they'll probably be less forgiving. Until they read the cover-your-ass EULA they didn't read in the first place they might even consider suing you.

Labels like beta on software are completely meaningless to almost everyone but a very small minority of keyboard-wielding geeks. Unless you can be absolutely positive your audience is only other geeks who know how to use a test release, care should be taken with each release you put out.

Once you make your software publicly available -- even a so-called alpha or beta -- people will grab it and break it. You have released it.

Like many other people, I've only pointed out the problem -- I haven't come up with a solution. Blaming users for being ignorant of industry jargon is not a solution. Blaming companies for messing up the meaning of industry jargon no one else cares about is not a solution either.

</rant>