While software is being developed, it goes through the well known steps of alpha testing (all in house) and beta testing (invited customers through to anyone). What is less well known is the next logic step, that when the software is released to customers (i.e. the developers start charging for it), can be referred to as gamma testing.
When a piece of software has a major release, there are all kinds of pressure to "get it out the door" so that the vendor can start making a return on their investment. From the customer perspective, they can now start piloting this new (version of) software in their own environment, during which they sometimes find major problems that should have been caught in the beta testing. This can make using brand new software a bit risky, which is why I often refer to that first while as gamma testing. Gamma testing can be just the first month of the release on products that turn out to be running well out the gate, where as for the more troublesome products it might not be until the first service patch has been released.
Gamma testing is certainly the time where we find out if the product is the greatest yet for its kind, or if it is likely to be a dud (i.e. Windows Vista, Microsoft Bob, even a few service packs some to mind) and a proof that the phrase "the latest and greatest" often used incorrectly as if the latest is always the greatest and is also greater than the versions that are yet to be created.
And why has this come to mind now you might ask. Well I have to decide for a client whether some new servers to be built next week will be the old, stable, but with known problems version of the OS, or the shinny new one that was release a week ago. Now back to watching those OES forums.
