The Logos 6 Beta Program

Development Cycle

Every six to seven weeks, the Faithlife Corporation released new 64 bit versions of Logos 6, Verbum 6, and Noet 6, with new/improved feature(s)/dataset(s)/interactive(s) and bug fixes. Before these new versions were released officially, Faithlife provided public Beta test releases for both OS X and Windows. Typically Faithlife published several Beta releases over a period of one to two months. Each new release had more features (some are exclusive to Logos Now and Verbum Now), more stability, OR faster than previous builds – that meant some Beta releases were buggy: crashed (sometimes a lot), some features did not work as expected, did corrupt (or destroy) your data, or had any number of other unfortunate, unforeseen consequences. Faithlife therefore recommends that you only install Beta version(s) on a dedicated testing account (although some brave souls didn’t take that advice! – knowing some bugs existed for long time). Logos Speaks has links to many design decisions.

Towards the end of a development cycle, Faithlife Corporation released builds that should be stable enough for daily use – a release candidate (RC). If no significant bugs were found in release candidate after a short period (a few days), Faithlife made that release available to everyone (often referred to as ‘Gold’). If bugs were found, they were fixed in a new release candidate (RC2), and the process repeated until no more significant bugs were found. Service releases (SR) fix significant bugs after Gold release and complete development cycle for a Logos/Verbum 6 version. As of version 5.2, Logos 5 and Verbum applications are available, which can be installed for simultaneous use (with separate folders containing resources and indexes). Logos 6.0 was the initial stable 64 bit release on Mon 27 Oct 2014, which requires Windows 7 SP1 or OS X 10.9 or newer plus 6.0a added Noet application. As of version 6.2, many new features are available for Logos Now and Verbum Now

Understanding different versions

• Alpha version: A very early test version – missing some important features, and will probably have bugs. For Logos 5, Alpha versions were internal builds.
• 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 for 6.# releases was available to all Logos and Verbum users. The Logos Desktop Beta forum discusses beta issues, which can include interaction with Faithlife developers. Please read and heed IMPORTANT Beta Testing Information/Warnings

• On PC and OS X, to join current and future beta releases, use command set update channel to beta
• On PC and OS X, you can download current beta release using link in update channel RSS feed then install

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 Logos Windows Problem , Windows Troubleshooting, Logos Mac Problem or OS X 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:

Understanding build numbers

Version numbers in Logos look like this 6.0.1.0017. The 6 just means Logos or Verbum version 6. The 6.0 means this is the first (initial) major update. The third number 6.0.1 is the minor release, which has an alphabetic designator: 6.0.1 is 6.0a; 6.0.0 is 6.0 (initial major release does not have an alphabetic suffix). The 0017 means this is Logos 6.0a build number 17. Logos development resets the build number to 0 for each minor release. The initial public beta for 6.0a Beta 1 already has 17 builds by the Logos development team. The 6.0 SR-3 release had 3,752 builds, which is reflected in 6.0.0.3752 version number.

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 Logos 6 and/or Verbum 6 for sermon preparation or education classes, 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! 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. Optionally can use scan command to identify, copy, and index resources from a Beta installation.

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