This wasn't well publicised but some time back I was prevailed upon to drop the "alpha" tag. You'll notice that it's
not in the release notes or in other related material anymore.
However, I would still feel very uncomfortable calling OpenSimulator "beta". To me, beta does imply completion of a
known set of features. As others have said later on in this thread, the target is moving. Some features are fairly
mature, others are still fresh, others have yet to be dreamed up.
I also think it promises a higher level of reliability than I feel that we currently have. All in all, I don't think
that it's a useful tag and more a marketing term than something useful.
The next talking point becomes "1.0". I continue to think that we are a pretty long way off that. Also, not being
"1.0" has not done some significant projects any harm, such as node.js (0.10.28). I would rather underpromise and
overdeliver than the other way around.
On 12/06/14 17:02, steve l wrote:
Hi there,
I am not really anybody, just a user of OpenSim. I will give you some of my
thoughts.
I watch OpenSim very carefully and run 6 little servers with various versions
on them. Yes OS has it's issues, but I
think it is ready for prime time in many many ways.
As for it's alpha status-that shocked me. OS is way beyond alpha in my opinion.
If you are going to debate alpha/ beta I
think that one is already over. OS is way beyond alpha. In my opinion you
should just go to version 1 and get it over
with. All good software is a work in progress. OS is software that works very
well in most ways.
Justin I know will fight tooth and nail to keep it back to pre version 1.
Justin is a perfectionist and wants it to be
perfect before it hits final release. I understand that and he does have a good
point. The thing is that you are
constantly adding features to it and that adds bugs to it. My feeling is to
decide what will be a core OS and get that
core to a point of working well and call the core version 1.0. I think that
basically OpenSim is already there. All you
have to decide is what constitutes the core.
The other thing here is public perception. Most of the world looks at an alpha piece
of software and says- "No way! It's
alpha! It will mess up my computer!" Even Beta software has that stigma
attached to it. The public thinks it either it
doesn't work well or will mess up their machine. I know better. I have used OS
for a long time. It is a good, well
designed virtual world server. Yes it crashes sometimes. But all in all I think
it is a better thing overall than any
version of Windows. Especially the earlier versions. Nobody remembers Windows
before version 3.1. Think about it. You
really need to leap to the Version 1.0 ASAP. Your public needs that.
If you want to add on more features, by all means! In my opinion features
should be modular add-ons to the core product.
Kind of like Firefox does with their add-ons. They can be there but chosen in a
.ini file as they are now. You might
even think of releasing a basic core version that starts as such and a full
feature version that has more things turned
on when it is installed. Think about the different versions of Sin-On-A-Stick.
You can choose how many regions you have
in the beginning- very user friendly!
You guys have a really good thing that you have created. You have put many
thousands of hours into it. It is being used
by tons of people in all kinds of environments. Some of those environments are
very high level. OpenSimulator deserves
to be at version 1. If you don't someone will just fork it and call theirs
that. Then everyone will think that the
forked version is the real version. Then you guys will be left in the dust.
Marketing is everything! Just ask Bill Gates
and guys at Apple!
That is my 2 cents!
Steve LaVigne
AngelFire Productions, Inc.
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Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
OSVW Consulting
http://justincc.org
http://twitter.com/justincc
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