Putting the B back in “Beta”
From the looks of comments on VersionTracker and elsewhere on the Web, some users are experiencing some pretty significant problems with the latest Flash Player 9 beta, version 9.0.60.184 (Really? We’re using all FOUR sets of digits in publicly available version numbers?)
Granted, this is still a Beta test version, but when it shows up on common download sites — especially without the big word “BETA” after the version number — people tend to download first and ask questions later (in this case, a lot of questions). And when it “crashes the internet,” they tend to remember the product (“Flash”) rather than the version number.
So while I’m excited about the new video capabilities of the latest Flash player, I also hope we’ll all remember to warn our clients that indeed, it IS still a beta version, and yes, their mileage may vary. (And for the overzealous and underwhelmed, an uninstaller is also available here.)
And, ahem, perhaps Adobe might want to add the word “beta” to the evergrowing version number as well (and mention it on the installation splash screen, perhaps)? Apparently, there is a “ub” in the filename itself, but… as someone just asked me earlier tonight, “How was I supposed to get ‘beta’ out of that?!”