Topic: Being patient BETA TIME!!

OK it has been quite a while since we saw any sort of new software.
Many of us have put a fair amount of energy into using our chumbys and faithfully reporting the good the bad and the ugly.
IMHO I would say that in general we are a patient group BUT mine is wearing a bit thin.
I really want NEED  to see that some progress is happening. The last time it was asked we were told that a new update was literally hours  not days or weeks certainly not months away.
I quote  Duane here "It's on the order of weeks, not months for firmware, on the order of hours or days for new beta Control Panel."
This was the 17th of January almost a month ago and still nothing.
This comment is almost completely untrue.
Look I am rooting for you I have a chumby I paid for it. I am happy to contribute my thoughts as are many others who have contributed a great deal to the "chubby cause" None of us have anything to gain except for better functionality.
I am happy with that. We deserve more than we are getting.
If nothing else we need the chumby to work even better than it does. Semi-random resets will drive a person crazy after a while.
It is time to put out another beta and trust us to do what we do so well.
Yaesumofo

A Chumby in hand is worth 20 in the Wherehouse.

2 (edited by polychroma 2008-02-07 05:53:57)

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

...and I thought, that I was the only one thinking things got a little slow around here. 
Maybe a blog entry describing the development would enlighten the situation.

Cheers --
polychroma

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

Everyone pressured me to give you all a time frame, and I reluctantly gave you one based on the information I had at the time.

Now we know why I was reluctant - I'm a big fat liar now smile

Internally, the Control Panel is up to 2.6.67 - so we're not sitting on our hands around here.

However, a newer Control Panel is not going to "fix" the freezes - that requires an update to the firmware.  At the moment, there's no mechanism to test firmware in the field - the failure modes that firmware may have may not be recoverable in the field (we have special equipment to resurrect certain classes of "bricked" chumbys), so firmware betas are not something we're actively pursuing.

One reason the CP has been on hold is that it's being tested against *two* firmware images (the current release you have, and the next one), and QA is finding issues that manifest as CP problems that are often actually bugs in the firmware image under development.  This tends to create an artificially high bug count for the CP until the cause has been determined, (which can take a while), and thus QA holds the CP from release.

I should also note that the next CP beta release is all about stability, not functionality. You should not expect anything "new" until the 2.7 beta cycle.

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

I can wait. I'd rather you get it right than get it out now.

As long as you beat Duke Nukem Forever. And Chinese Democracy.

5 (edited by huckfinn 2008-02-07 13:37:19)

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

Duane,

Thanks for the update. I am also starting to get impatient - but I understand. As you get closer to the release version everything needs to be as perfect as possible. While I am getting impatient with the daily lockups, I would really hate it if my Chumbies were reduced to bricks. I also understand that if something like that happened, and a good portion of Chumbies in the field had to be recalled - that is a huge financial burden. It could even possibly severely impact the future of Chumby. So please take your time and just continue to keep us updated. That does a lot to calm the masses - at least that is my opinion.

-HuckFinn

6 (edited by yaesumofo 2008-02-07 19:00:29)

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

I did not call you a liar. I just pointed out that way more time had passed than was predicted. You have to agree it has been a while since you told us what you told us.
I agree a Blog post may encourage some of us.
I never thought or said that you guys were idle.
I like stability. I have enough functionality (there are a few things I would tweak..) for now.
I didn't force you to announce when an update would be made. I did not even pressure you to either. So please express your negative attitude towards the people who did pressure you to announce NOT ME!
It certainly isn't My Fault that you made a bad prediction. Welcome to the real world. People get upset if they are told one thing and another happens. I bet you do too.

Maybe if you had bothered to update us when it became apparent that those predictions were not going to happen we wouldn't be so impatient and you wouldn't be so anxious.

Maybe I should try a different approach.
What is the ultimate goal of this company? To sell Chubbys?
When do you plan on selling them to the wide world?
I don't get why you seem so mad that somebody dare announce that they have been patient that there are a while bunch of people being patient.
And not even a thanks for all of the work and patience done for the chumby by all of these VERY patient people.
Sure we all want the same thing a cool stable device...Dare I say that there is some limit to how long people will sit quietly and wait?
Maybe I shouldn't...

Yaesumofo


Duane wrote:

Everyone pressured me to give you all a time frame, and I reluctantly gave you one based on the information I had at the time.

Now we know why I was reluctant - I'm a big fat liar now smile

Internally, the Control Panel is up to 2.6.67 - so we're not sitting on our hands around here.

However, a newer Control Panel is not going to "fix" the freezes - that requires an update to the firmware.  At the moment, there's no mechanism to test firmware in the field - the failure modes that firmware may have may not be recoverable in the field (we have special equipment to resurrect certain classes of "bricked" chumbys), so firmware betas are not something we're actively pursuing.

One reason the CP has been on hold is that it's being tested against *two* firmware images (the current release you have, and the next one), and QA is finding issues that manifest as CP problems that are often actually bugs in the firmware image under development.  This tends to create an artificially high bug count for the CP until the cause has been determined, (which can take a while), and thus QA holds the CP from release.

I should also note that the next CP beta release is all about stability, not functionality. You should not expect anything "new" until the 2.7 beta cycle.

A Chumby in hand is worth 20 in the Wherehouse.

7 (edited by Steve Tomlin 2008-02-07 21:13:28)

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

Okay, I'll pop up and give a new estimate: about 2 weeks.  That way I'll take the heat if we miss instead of Duane. :^)

Seriously, thanks for being patient everyone -- this coming release is a big one from a commercial stability standpoint.  You won't see a ton of new features if you're already using the Beta Control Panel but will see much more stable performance around those features.

To make you feel better, you should also know that some really cool new content is coming too.

8 (edited by gsr264 2008-02-07 22:18:50)

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

yaesumofo I'm with Duane. He made it pretty clear the first time around that his statement was an 'estimated' time frame and didn't expect to be held to it. Keep in mind we are pretty much Beta testing these thing and shouldn't expect them to be feature complete as of yet. My suggestion is that if you don't have the patience... sell your Chumby and wait until a full public release before you rejoin the community. We should be thanking them for letting us in on things before the device is even ready for the market, not throwing a fit that it's not ready yet. I for one found that a big deal.

I can feel your pain, but I just don't see us being in a position to complain about things right now. We already have expanded functionality in the web radio functions. Time will bring more updates just hang in there! Plus if we complain we will get NO communication!! smile

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

I am not looking for features. I am looking to do what we are asked to do examine new versions of the software for problems.
So we all get the beat software use it report back and then it is all quiet on the Russian front. we hear nothing....
A little communication would be good. Managing a bunch of people who are using a new software package isn't easy..especially if you choose to NOT manage them.

My point is here we are ready and waiting...and wanting....to help!!

Yaesumofo

gsr264 wrote:

yaesumofo I'm with Duane. He made it pretty clear the first time around that his statement was an 'estimated' time frame and didn't expect to be held to it. Keep in mind we are pretty much Beta testing these thing and shouldn't expect them to be feature complete as of yet. My suggestion is that if you don't have the patience... sell your Chumby and wait until a full public release before you rejoin the community. We should be thanking them for letting us in on things before the device is even ready for the market, not throwing a fit that it's not ready yet. I for one found that a big deal.

I can feel your pain, but I just don't see us being in a position to complain about things right now. We already have expanded functionality in the web radio functions. Time will bring more updates just hang in there! Plus if we complain we will get NO communication!! smile

A Chumby in hand is worth 20 in the Wherehouse.

10 (edited by huckfinn 2008-02-08 08:29:36)

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

While I am also impatient, I am also going to back Duane up on this topic. I am an engineer for a large company and there are always unexpected delays in programs. So we all need to at least try to be patient. We did buy into this program as "Beta" users so we should have all expected a few bumps in the road. Over all I am very pleased with my Chumby and all of the features and content that keep being added. I am sure that all the people at Chumby are working very hard to fix bugs and release new features. This is evident by the fact that Duane posted the new FW release notes at 1:17AM (CST) this morning. Sure that is only 11:17PM California time - but still a late night. As much as us users want to know release schedules, we are not entitled to such information. Duane offered it up and now due to the problems it caused will probably not do it again ;-). With all that said, I think all of us Beta users would just like to see some brief updates on what is in the pipe line and approximate release dates. This could be updated if things slip, just to feed us a little info to tide us over.

Also if they are testing new firmware, we really can not help them - especially if the firmware could brick our units.

Thanks

-HuckFinn

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

likewise, go duane & co!

This is a beta program,
we as beta _testers_ should be concerned and
focused on the product itself and not on requesting
support for it or asking for documented timelines of
development progress. Brief updates would be great,
but we must all realize they are not promises.

Once it's released then it's time to
support your customers.

I appreciate that you made the beta
open to everyone, and hope that
you'll continue to do so in the future!



ps. crosses fingers for stability....

Re: Being patient BETA TIME!!

I think it'd be a GREAT idea to create a blog for beta development. It wouldn't have to be so detailed that it took time away from said development, but it's just be nice if we had an idea of whats going on behind the scenes smile


P.S.
Go Duane and Steve! Long live Chumby!