5.1 Beta programm

Since 5.1 will have some major changes how would Telerik feel about a beta programm. I assume there are enough people who would engage in such a programm and if anyone taking part just finds one bug the transition would be much smoother.

Markus

Hi Markus,

We have a program even now - let me know if you want to receive internal early builds. 

We are thinking on opening special forums where we'll discuss early beta builds, features, bugs and dependencies which block a feature implementation. We'll let you know when this is ready ;).

Kind regards,
Georgi
the Telerik team

Dear Georgi

You know me. If I have time I love to test and give some feedback. Anything we find while Beta will make the real thing better when released :-)

So yes please add me to the list when you have a build ready and you want it to be tested. If you include what to test especially for name it. Otherwise I just run it and see what happens.
Markus

Hi Georgi,

Afternoon Georgei,

@MBA
  Doubtful they're going to provide nighty builds, probably just a version nearing release, maybe a week or two before for us to test with. 

Dr. Georgi is on vacation right now, so he might not be responding for a bit (hopefully anyway) :)

Hi guys :)

Markus & Daniel - I've added you to the list.
@Jeff - it was nice to meet you at the conference as well. I've added you to the list.

We still do not have a 5.1 beta build. I'll let you know by e-mail as soon as we have a build, so that you can play with it.

Thanks for your interest and willingness to help!

p.s. Steve - you know me, sooner or later, I always respond :)
 
Kind regards,
Georgi
the Telerik team

Thanks Georgi!

We would definitely want to be involved in beta testing new products. Please add us to the list.

QUBA – sitefinity specialists

Hi Charlie,

QUBA was added to the list.

Dear Georgi
Any estimate when we can first play with an 5.1 beta (or even alpha) version.
Markus

Hello Markus,

Thank your for the interest! We'll send out the test build approximately 2-3 weeks before the release.

Thanks Georgi
I was hopping that Telerik would release it much earlier for testing purposes. 2-3 weeks might be for some of ouf a bit short to do testing and/or give feedback that might help improve 5.1 to make a good start.
Imagine I am in vacation or up to my neck in a project that does need to be finished - this would leave me no time for playing around and testing.

2-3 weeks to me is more a Release Candidate then a Beta Programm.

Markus

@Markus That's more of what it is...it's to give feedback for sure, but more to find like zero-day game breaking bugs so we don't get Hotfixes issued after the release...or just some general Oops bugs.

You aren't likely to see significant changes from the release you get to the official (aside from the bug fixes)

@Steve
I just thought becaue of the past where we did see hotfixes and Oops bugs it might be smart to involve willing and free of charge people at an earlier stage. Imagin 2 week before release they let us play. 1 week I have no time and then in the second week I find a bug. This would either not be fixed, or push back the release (and we had our share of both)

If it stays indeed at a 2-3 week prior notice I might as well wait until the relase + 2 weeks.

Markus

Hi Markus,

You are right, that's not real beta program. It's more like an early build, so that you can see what's coming, perform early upgrade and possibly check if there are any major issues with the project you are upgrading. 
Think about the following - we have around 3-4 months between the major releases, and 1-1,5 months between the service packs. 3 weeks basically means 1/4 of our development time, between the major releases, which is a lot. We might have better beta program in which we can collect feedback and improve things for months, if we have for example 1-2 releases a year.

Dear Georgi
Thanks for the detailed feedback. I was more hoping in helping to improve the releases then get an early preview.
Updating SF takes some time and testing, so I cannot simply play around with a project to see if a (most probably unsuported) early build will work or not. 
I simply wait 2-3 weeks to upgrade after each release I will have the same time between the releases - just with a small lag :-)
Thanks. Looking forward to an great 5.1 experiance. I am waiting for 5.1 to apporach all my clients with sites prior to Sitefinity to show them the next big thing in CMS.
Markus

Can you add me to the list for an early build please. We are just starting a major project and the updates are required. Would be easier to start from 5.1.

Thanks
Gary Gaughan-Smith
First Atlantic Commerce

There's no early release this round for 5.1, but general rule is you never, never ever never build on a pre-release.  Updates to and from are 100% not supported.

The program is just to find bugs before an official release...

Relax, We're still in the Prototyping phase. Real DEV will be done on 5.1 release proper as it has some RadControls we want to use.
Just sorting out overall project Architecture, so early 5.1 will be useful for this.