The Logos 4 Beta Program

Development Cycle

From time to time Logos releases new versions of Logos 4, with new and improved features and bug fixes. Before these new versions are released officially, Logos provides public Beta test releases for both Mac and PC. Typically Logos publishes several Beta releases over a period of two to three months. Each new release will have more features, be more stable, OR be faster than previous builds – that means Beta releases can be buggy: can crash (sometimes a lot), some features might not work as expected, may corrupt (or destroy) your data, or have any number of other unfortunate, unforeseen consequences. Logos therefore recommends that you only install Beta version(s) on a dedicated testing account (although some brave souls don’t take that advice! – knowing some bugs exist for long time). Logos Speaks has links to many design decisions.

Towards the end of a development cycle, Logos will release a new build, which they think is stable enough for daily use – a release candidate (RC). If no significant bugs are found in release candidate after a short period (a few days), Logos will make that release available to everyone (often referred to as ‘Gold’). If bugs are found, they’ll be fixed in a new release candidate (RC2), and the process continues until no more significant bugs are found. Service releases (SR) fix significant bugs after Gold release and complete development cycle for a Logos 4 version.

Understanding different versions

• Alpha version: A very early test version – missing some important features, and will probably have bugs. For Logos 4, Alpha versions only released for Mac OS X (initial port from PC – needed Mac user interface).
• Beta version: A later test version – has more features, but will still have some bugs – can include non-backward compatible changes (so syncing stuff between Beta and Stable has potential to cause issues in Stable release).
• Release Candidate: A version that Logos developers hope is stable enough for daily use. Note the word ‘hope’!
• Gold Release: The final version that really does have all features stable enough for daily use – exactly the same as final Release Candidate.
• Service Release: After a Gold release, some bugs need fixing for stable daily use by variety of people.

How do I join the beta program?

The beta program is available to all Logos users. The Logos Desktop Beta forum discusses beta issues, which can include interaction with Logos developers.

• On PC, to join current beta cycle (but not future cycles), download and install http://downloads.logos.com/LBS4/InstallerBeta/Logos4Setup.exe

• On Mac, to join current beta cycle, download and install http://downloads.logos.com/LBS4/LBS4MacInstallerBeta/Logos4Mac.dmg

• On PC and Mac, to join current and future beta releases, type command set update channel to beta in Logos 4 command bar.

• On PC and Mac, you can download current beta release using link in update channel RSS feed.

Reporting Problems

You should have logging permanently enabled because you will be expected to upload logs for diagnostic purposes to the Logos Desktop Beta forum , especially after a crash. For more details see Windows Troubleshooting or Mac Troubleshooting.
Note Logos or other users may be able to recommend a workaround but be prepared to wait for the next beta (may be a week or two)!

Understanding update channels

Logos has two update channels, beta and stable. These ‘channels’ (actually RSS feeds) tell your Logos software when a new version is available. The stable channel contains details for Gold release and Service Releases only. The beta channel contains details for beta and release candidates (RC), may include service release (if no public Beta available). These tables illustrate recent versions in beta and stable channels:

Finding your update channel

• On a PC, if you click help icon in top right of Logos, and choose About Logos Bible Software, you can find out which update channel you are using. On a Mac, click Logos Bible Software 4 on menu bar (top left of screen), then click About Logos Bible Software to show version and update channel. If you have manually specified either the stable or beta channels, this will be stated next to version number. If you are using default channel for this particular version, then nothing will be stated.

PC (Beta)	Mac (Beta)

Understanding build numbers

The picture above also shows the current version number. Version numbers in Logos look like this 4.03.3.9511. The 4 just means Logos version 4. The 03 means this is the third major update, which the marketing department call 4.0c (4.02 was version 4.0b and 4.21 is version 4.2a). The 3.9511 means this is build number 39,511. Yes, there really have been that many builds! That’s because there are dozens of programmers all working on Logos every day. Every time one of them submits a change, the build number increases. The vast majority of these builds are only used internally, as they represent only a step to a ‘finished’ release. The build number may be reset to zero for a new version (e.g. 4.3 was reset to 0 with 51,115 previous Logos 4 builds).

Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the benefits of joining the beta program? Provides you an opportunity to give feedback to Logos developers about new features, and can help speed up development, and give you some influence on how features are developed along with being able to use new feature(s) month(s) before everyone else.
• Is it safe to join the beta program? If you rely on Logos4 for sermon preparation or Sunday School class, then you should make sure you have a Stable version installed on another user account or another computer. That way if you have a non-recoverable crash, or an important feature just won’t work, you’ll still be able to teach on Sunday! There is also a risk that a Beta version will corrupt your documents (such as notes, collections, favorites, shortcuts, etc.), and that this corruption could sync to your Stable version. It’s therefore wise to back up your documents (especially if you have lots of notes) before installing any Beta version.
• Can I withdraw from the beta program? Beta bugginess is not for everyone (fixing some bugs spans several Beta releases). However, downgrading in middle of a beta development cycle is difficult; see previous question for potential corruption risk. If want to downgrade from Beta to Stable version, need to completely uninstall Beta before installing Stable. If wish to avoid re-downloading Logos resources by copying resource files to scan using Stable version, may want to delete resource file(s) that were updated on or after initial Beta release (e.g. 19 Sep 2012 for Logos 4.6a Beta 1) before using scan command. For PC, see Reinstalling Logos. For Mac, see Want to downgrade from Beta to Stable.

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