Folding@home beta clients

[SandStar]

Let me first start by saying that I'm trying to start a discussion, not flaming at how things are going.

The GPU and SMP(2) clients have been beta for a very long time now and I was wondering if and when they will get out of beta and be a properly supported client. The SMP client for example has been working fine for years and once every while it gets an update. But it always remains "beta" and its always a console client instead of a proper graphical client version.

Isn't it time for a proper client release?

[toTOW]

Well ... with SMP2 and GPU3 coming, I think SMP and GPU2 will never leave beta state ...

[7im]

Having a graphical client is not an indication of stability, nor of being a "proper" released client.

Linux never has had a graphical client, and it's had several "proper" and released clients.

Graphical clients are provided for the less technically savy contributors to make the clients easier to install and run, or to provide eye candy for those who enjoy that sort of thing. The SMP clients are considered a high performance client for the more technically savy contributor.

Stanford may eventually get the SMP clients to the point where a graphical interface makes sense, but it's not there quite yet. However, the v6.29 client release is a BIG step in that direction compared to previous smp versions.

[bruce]

The GPU and SMP(2) clients have been beta for a very long time now and I was wondering if and when they will get out of beta and be a properly supported client. The SMP client for example has been working fine for years and once every while it gets an update. But it always remains "beta" and its always a console client instead of a proper graphical client version.

Isn't it time for a proper client release?

It depends on whether you're talking about MacOS, Linux, or WIndows. From the Windows perspective, the original SMP client has quite a few items on the list of "known bugs" most of which were identified when the client/core were new, and most of which have not been fixed. The reason for them not being fixed is attributed to the 3rd party add-on code for MPI. If the bugs are "impossible" to fix, then there should be no expectation that the beta status will ever be removed.

What has happened, instead, was an entirely new method of dealing with SMP has been developed with the name SMP2 and currently available with the client v6.29 and FahCore_a3. Interestingly, I have not seen the need to develop a list of "known bugs." Even though some bugs have been found, several have been fixed, and others are not serious enough to be considered "major" I'm not in the business of predicting the future, but I'm sill willing to guess that SMP2 will emerge from beta status at some time in the future.

It might be worth noting that the v5.02/5.03 clients were called beta when they were released and were never reclassified even though they were dependable clients. From the programmer's perspective, if version N.NNbeta has been distributed and is sufficiently trouble-free that no bug-fixes are planned, what's the point in releasing version N.NN+1 with no changes except the version number and the removal of the "beta" designation?

[SandStar]

With "proper" client I mean a client installation which is more user-friendly then it is now.
For instance a msi install package that installs a client that is capable to be run in systray like the Windows system tray client.

toTOW points out exactly the point i'm trying to make: beta clients just get a small back-end side update every now and then while the front-end, the part that makes it more user-friendly, never gets an update.
(Since I believe more then 90% of contributors use Windows I'm referring to the Windows platform.)

The point of something being beta used to be testing and working on a full release. If stanford says they plan on keeping high performance clients beta and for enthusiasts only that's their choice. I'm not going to argue about the wrong or right in that, I'm just wondering what their thought on that is. What's the plan....