It’s been 2 weeks since we took the downloads down and a bit more since we started the closed Alpha for the upcoming next version. Sadly, I’m not the bearer of good news as it seems it will take a bit more time before we open-up downloads to the public again.

I’d like to take a moment and explain this whole Alpha vs. Beta thing and how the process looks:

Our definition of Beta is “a publicly available version”. Up until two weeks ago, you could download the latest Beta from our homepage by clicking the giant green “Download” button. The latest Beta version is numbered 1.0.780.0, and it has several known issues (if you have Soluto installed you can see the version number by Ctrl-clicking the tray icon). It was built with certain considerations regarding scalability in mind, but milestones we thought we would hit in 6 months we already hit a month ago. So we had to change our development plans, postpone the next cool major features (way beyond the boot), and built a new version that focuses on scale.

Before releasing a version to the public (“making it Beta”), we need to verify it works on a smaller sample. Here’s how that works:

1. Our R&D team provides a version to our QA team that installs the version on many test machines.
2. If everything looks fine, all of Soluto’s employees install the version on their work and home PCs.
3. If everything looks fine, we ask several friends and family members to install the version.

If we feel the version is solid after the steps above, we move it to an “Alpha” stage. This means we are ready to provide it to a few hundreds or a few thousands of brave users who are willing to give it a spin. There is no open or public way to get the Alpha version, you need to sign-up to our Alpha Team, and once there’s a version available we send it to you.

Even the Alpha Team is layered… We start by sending the version to ~100 people (chosen at random), then wait for feedback – both by automatically monitoring numerous metrics and by listening to the users. Then we send to another ~200, and wait for feedback. Then to ~500 more, and you get the point. As the sample size grows, we may discover issues we just couldn’t have discovered without a large group of Alpha testers.

Once we feel confident that the Alpha is solid, we move it to Beta. Even then, we don’t just return the Download button to the homepage and put our feet up. We return it for an hour, then take it off and analyze the situation. Then for 2 hours, and you get where this is going…

So where are we right now?

We rolled out the Alpha to a few hundred users and discovered several issues we’re fixing. If you signed-up and didn’t receive an Alpha version yet, don’t worry – you’ll get one as the sample size grows.

This method takes more time, but it’s because we take quality very seriously. Being an Alpha tester means you’ll suffer through some bugs so that the public gets a better product. So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the many thousands that signed up for our Alpha Team, and the few hundreds that already got it and have shared their feedback.

We will keep updating you as we proceed, hopefully the next update will be on the initial roll-out of the public Beta. Meanwhile, if you want to lend a hand, become an Alpha tester :)

Yours,

Roee – @roadler