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It is quite intuitive that at least Gamma comes after Beta and Alpha.
But how about CTP, RTM and Preview releases? Which one comes first and last?
MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework) is currently on Preview 5 release, but I am not sure if it is a release before Alpha or after Beta, CTP or RTM. Is it OK to use preview releases in production code?
What are the differences between those releases? I am particularly interested in knowing differences between
releases.
It seems like everywhere each releases mean different things.
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The first version in field release is usually called an alpha release, while a second release is called the beta. The product may be immature in the alpha release. Only critical tasks have been implemented with high quality.
Beta - Widespread release. Expected to be mostly stable, feature complete. RTM - Release to manufacturing. Final release of the product, the "Gold" release.
Short for release to manufacturing, RTM is a term used to describe the version of software first released to hardware manufacturers for bundling. The RTM process is beneficial in that it helps developers work out any bugs before general release via manufacturer refinement of the software.
An alpha release is a version of the product which has passed initial QA but for which no documentation or support is available. The primary audience for this release is the technically interested and module vendors. Issues may be submitted to support but no reply can be expected.
I've most commonly seen those terms used in the following ways
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