AboutGeorge Derringer Expertise I know a great deal about Macintosh computers running the older Mac OS 9, considerably less about machines running OS X
Experience I am the town crier in my home town, a newspaper editor by trade and a shortwave radio fan since, oh, about 1959.
Question QUESTION: I was wondering would you please tell me: what does the term "beta" mean?
P.S I've got a eMac which is running OS X 10.4
Thanks
ANSWER: Pre-release versions of software are named "alpha" and "beta" for the first two letters in the Greek alphabet (note that ALPHA-BET is nothing more than the "ABCs" in English.) Anyway, alpha software is just for testing while "beta" means the software is not yet finished and probably contains bugs.
There is often one more version of any software program called "release candidate." So let's imagine a software program called George. Versions, in chronological order, might be"
George 0.9a (the first alpha version)
George 0.9.1a
George 1.0 beta 1
George 1.0 beta 2
George 1.0rc1 (the first release candidate)
George 1.0rc2
George 1.0rc3
George 1.0
How willing you are to install an alpha or a beta on your computer depends on your bravery! Many of us are still nervous about installing any version before the release version 1.0, but others have lots of fun testing software by installing earlier versions. Your choice but remember that alpha, beta and release candidates MIGHT hurt your computer. Generally, they just crash or fail to work, but in theory actual hard could result.
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QUESTION: I was wondering would you please explain to me: what does the term
"firewire" mean?
P.S I've got a eMac which is running OS X 10.4
Thanks
Answer Firewire is a rapid transfer port from one computer to another, used by connecting a wire with "firewire" jacks on either end. I think you need to look things up on Wikipedia. The entry at
shows the symbol (it's yellow on the Web page) of how a Firewire port (connection) on your computer is marked. Wikipedia is a really good source of understandable definitions of computer terms, though not necessarily a reliable source for everything.
