From: Rasmus Plewe (rplewe_at_suse.de)
Date: Thu May 11 2006 - 15:46:01 CEST
Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 15:46:01 +0200 From: Rasmus Plewe <rplewe@suse.de> Message-ID: <20060511134601.GB25894@coredump.suse.de> Subject: Re: [suse-sles-e] SLES 10 Open Beta - When?
On Thu, May 11, 2006 at 03:19:30PM +0200, Rainer Duffner wrote:
> jonlists@cbsol.com wrote:
>
> In the past, SuSE cited lack of resources as the primary reason why
> betas were only available to a very small amount of customers (and
> partners).
That is, unfortunately, still true to some extent. Both man power and
technical limits would make it difficult to make a (closed) beta
meaningful for a considerably larger number of participants.
> I must admit that personally I have no need for SLES10(beta) - I just
> feel that if the process of getting "into" the beta-circle would be a
> bit easier, some "if I had known that in advance"-situations could be
> avoided.
Please allow me a bit of scepticism here. ;-)
That said, I do know that the process to get into the program has room
for improvement. Not everyone that should have been made aware of it
(like this list) was informed. My goal is to improve this, and then to
make sure the resulting mix of participants is as useful as possible.
With limited participants, the 50th PC cluster is not as important as
someone who has some exotic hardware, and at least claims to be able and
willing to put time and effort into the testing. Chosing 5 out of 50 PC
clusters will probably make 45 people unhappy, but from the point of
view of the product the resources can be better spent elsewhere.
> Again, this is also a capacity-problem: Who is going to provide support
> to a not-yet-released product?
Nobody. If you install a beta version and screw your data, or even
happen to damage your hardware, you're on your own (in fact, given the
standard EULAs out there, you're always on your own as soon as anything
happens). During Beta, we try to handle those situations as good as
possible, to improve the product. But it may take some time, because
priorities are elsewhere. There's a mailing list to discuss problems and
workarounds. The bottom line is: we don't promise anything. And that's
just standard beta-phase policy everywhere.
> Does the helpdesk (need to) know about it? What liabillites do arise?
> People tend to use BETA-software also in production - and complain to
> SuSE and even to the media when it fails.
Using beta software in production? Tough luck, please restore from
backup and appologize to your company/customers. You can't do this in a
professional environment. Literally, because if you do, it's not
professional.
Complaining to the media? During closed beta, there is an NDA, so do
this on your own risk.
Helpdesk has beta versions on their list of reasons to immediately
reject a request.
> I can understand why SuSE/Novell wants to avoid such a situation by
> working with a well-known and sensible group of beta-testers.
Yes, I can understand this, too. ;-)
Even though I hope we will be able to introduce a bit more openness some
time in the future, I believe that a completely open beta program is
rather unlikely, for political, marketing, legal and a couple of other
reasons.
Regards,
Rasmus
-- Rasmus Plewe Linux Beta Test Coordinator SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, D-90409 Nuernberg tel.: +49-911-74053-644 fax: +49-911-74053-483 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-sles-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-sles-e-help@suse.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Thu May 11 2006 - 15:46:05 CEST