Clarification sought: Beta vs. General Release

[whytyger]

I purchased a license for 3.0 prior to its release. There have recently been two additional builds. The first of these, 4560, was called an update, and I was informed of its existence when I launched Parallels after some time, and followed the download instructions I received within the program.

This release was problematical for some (including me) and not for others. Now we have another release, 5060, which apparently addresses some of the concerns that arose with regard to 4560, for which kudos are surely due to the team.

However, this release is clearly identified as a beta, with all the usual beta disclaimers, and with further cautions offered by a product support team member on this board against using this release for production work.

This raises two questions for me:

1) Was the previous release, 4560, also a beta, or was it actually an update to a shipping version? Are users still being urged to apply this update, or are they better of remaining with 4128?

2) Given that 5060 is identified as a beta, of which version is it a beta? 3.1? 4.0?

Answers to these questions would presumably help systems administrators, and also would help clarify the nature and direction of current development efforts.

 

[drscience]

I'd like the same info.

 

[brkirch]

1) Was the previous release, 4560, also a beta, or was it actually an update to a shipping version? Are users still being urged to apply this update, or are they better of remaining with 4128?

Build 4560 was a SmartSelect and bug fix update which ironically seems to have caused more problems for some users than it solved. I have not had any of those problems, but I can't guarantee you won't if you update. It was not beta however, because it had received testing prior to public release.

2) Given that 5060 is identified as a beta, of which version is it a beta? 3.1? 4.0?

Currently it is still labeled as 3.0, and I assume it will stay that way. The 3.5 release is supposed to have significantly improved DirectX 9 support and from what I understand it will add 64 bit guest OS support and multiple processor support for the guest OS.

 

[drscience]

Currently it [5060] is still labeled as 3.0, and I assume it will stay that way. The 3.5 release is supposed to have significantly improved DirectX 9 support and from what I understand it will add 64 bit guest OS support and multiple processor support for the guest OS.

A bit odd in the scheme of things--a beta for an already shipping product. Or perhaps more accurately a beta for an update as yet to be released?

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Olivier]

A bit odd in the scheme of things--a beta for an already shipping product. Or perhaps more accurately a beta for an update as yet to be released?

Thanks for the clarification.

Indeed: a beta for an update to an already released product. Probably like some revision 3.0.1 to a 3.0, though the numbering scheme could probably evolve depending on the perceived added value of the added feature set.

 

[spectre]

brkirch's and Olivier's answers cover the question generally, the official clarification is the same:
Build 4560 is the release version of an update for Parallels Desktop 3.0 and mainly deals with improving SmartSelect and Shared Applications features, also fixing some bugs reported by the customers. This build went through in-house testing by QA team and private beta-testing stages and was released as a regular update.
Build 5060 is the beta version of the next regular update for Parallels Desktop 3.0 and is currently undergoing public beta-testing stage. The release version of this new update will have a greater build number and will arrive a bit later, after we deal with the existing issues in this update reported by beta version users and our QA team. The build version 5060, although running quite well for many of our customers, is still considered beta and has some known problems and flaws, that's why we are strongly suggesting not to install it for the production use.
Generally it's recommended to upgrade to the 4560 build and wait for the next update final release unless you want to participate in the public beta-testing. Although from reading this forum some people may be under the impression that 4560 build is unstable, it's not exactly true. First, please mind that it's tech. support forum and people always write about problems here and also keep in mind that most of the reported problems with 4560 happen during upgrading over the existing version procedure. Our QA Team is working hard to catch such bugs, but due to the limitless number of possible Mac OS and Guest OS configurations it's quite hard to make sure that upgrade goes properly in every possible case. Clean install shouldn't cause any problems at all and if you follow some simple steps before upgrading like uninstalling the old version of Parallels Tools from VM, shutting down the VM properly, repairing the Mac disk permissions, uninstalling the old PD version and restarting the Mac before update - chances are very high that you won't encounter any problems.
By the way, I'm typing this all on Macbook Pro running Parallels Desktop 3.0 build 4560 Boot Camp Windows VM, and I updated over 4128 build without any problems, although I didn't take any precautions like I described earlier, hoping to reproduce some problem or bug during updating - but nope, everything went flawlessly and is working fine currently. I understand that this statement is not assuring people who did experience some problems with updating, I just want to tell you that we are doing our best to make new updates stable and rock solid, but there are always some cases when people can encounter problems due to the particular actions or software configurations we just unable to test and re-produce in-house before the release.

 

[whytyger]

Thank you for the very complete account of the situation with these two releases, one that I am sure will set many minds at rest. I also appreciated the summary of the "precautionary" installation. May I suggest, with all due respect:

1) That this precautionary procedure be made a "sticky." This might be especially useful because:
--a) The term "update" suggests that one would in fact install "over" the old installation
--b) Following this procedure after the fact might also help resolve any difficulties
encountered with an "install over."

2) I have personally found it helpful to knock on wood three times prior to the installation, and to throw salt over my left shoulder with my right hand. But since this is a proprietary technique, I do not suggest you include it in the proposed "sticky."