![People sometimes ask why the dev builds I release aren’t automatically updating, or get confused about the difference between dev builds and pre-releases. Well, here is the definitive description of each type of release and why they are important.
Development Releases
Sometimes referred to as dev release and almost exclusively announced on twitter. These releases are essentially unfinished and certainly untested mid-development releases.
I do these releases to help with rolling validation, especially when adding significant code complexity such as the 0.9.9 extensions. It also helps me avoid any big surprises when there are actual releases, making sure there hasn’t been anything I have overlooked.
These builds are not available from the in-app updater as they may have features which are unfinished or broken, so these builds are best left to the braver ones… however, so far, every dev release has been usable from day to day (as me and Vero use them).
We have between 500 and 2000 users grabbing each dev release to help test - thanks!!
Pre-Releases
People using Alfred from our website have [auto-updating] access to pre-releases by ticking the pre-release checkbox in Alfred’s update preferences. These are builds which are pretty much feature complete and hopefully bug free. I do a certain amount of validation and run the build through instruments for a few hours to make sure he is behaving as he should do.
These builds should be fine for anyone to use from day to day as long as they don’t mind the odd quirk here or there which may have been missed. Further pre-releases may happen which fix any bugs found.
We have around 10k users updating to the pre-release which is great to validate the build before it is made generally available.
General Releases
Available to everybody on the auto-updater and from our website. These usually come a week or two after pre-releases and are [hopefully] completely bug free! These are the builds which get submitted to the Mac App Store.
When we do general releases, we sometimes also send out a newsletter to people who have signed up on our website or in Alfred’s preferences… make sure to sign up if you want to be notified and for tips / tricks and sometimes treats! :)
Alfred has quite a few users updating to this version ;)
Cheers,Andrew](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loxss3nETQ1qgft15o1_500.jpg)
People sometimes ask why the dev builds I release aren’t automatically updating, or get confused about the difference between dev builds and pre-releases. Well, here is the definitive description of each type of release and why they are important.
Development Releases
Sometimes referred to as dev release and almost exclusively announced on twitter. These releases are essentially unfinished and certainly untested mid-development releases.
I do these releases to help with rolling validation, especially when adding significant code complexity such as the 0.9.9 extensions. It also helps me avoid any big surprises when there are actual releases, making sure there hasn’t been anything I have overlooked.
These builds are not available from the in-app updater as they may have features which are unfinished or broken, so these builds are best left to the braver ones… however, so far, every dev release has been usable from day to day (as me and Vero use them).
We have between 500 and 2000 users grabbing each dev release to help test - thanks!!
Pre-Releases
People using Alfred from our website have [auto-updating] access to pre-releases by ticking the pre-release checkbox in Alfred’s update preferences. These are builds which are pretty much feature complete and hopefully bug free. I do a certain amount of validation and run the build through instruments for a few hours to make sure he is behaving as he should do.
These builds should be fine for anyone to use from day to day as long as they don’t mind the odd quirk here or there which may have been missed. Further pre-releases may happen which fix any bugs found.
We have around 10k users updating to the pre-release which is great to validate the build before it is made generally available.
General Releases
Available to everybody on the auto-updater and from our website. These usually come a week or two after pre-releases and are [hopefully] completely bug free! These are the builds which get submitted to the Mac App Store.
When we do general releases, we sometimes also send out a newsletter to people who have signed up on our website or in Alfred’s preferences… make sure to sign up if you want to be notified and for tips / tricks and sometimes treats! :)
Alfred has quite a few users updating to this version ;)
Cheers,
Andrew
