We provide our customers with as much information as possible
during every phase of Rhino development. We rely on customer
input to:
- Set priorities
- Refine features
- Help us solve problems unique to their systems, processes,
and related software
Current development status
èPhase 0: Rhino 4.0 Service Releases and Labs Projects - Ongoing
èPhase 1: Rhino 5.0 Work-in-Progress - (closed)
èPhase 2: Rhino 5.0 Beta - (at least 6 months) -
Download
èPhase 3: Rhino 5.0 Final - Release projected to be next year
Phase 0:
Service releases
and labs projects
- Service releases are bug fix releases that users
can download after the final release of every major new
version.
- Labs projects are plug-ins
for the current release. They are early prototypes of features
that will be in the next major release.
Available now...
Phase 1:
Work-in-Progress
At the start of the new version development process, we release
a Work-in-Progress (WIP) version to test new ideas and technologies
that have been prototyped.
WIP releases (many call this the Alpha release phase) are
not production ready, and many ideas and technologies
are only prototyped.
All current Rhino users are invited to get involved. Customer
feedback at this stage has the most impact on how features and
enhancements are designed.
The WIP phase normally takes more than 6 months.
Phase 2:
Beta
Once we have most
of the core changes finished and tested, we start releasing
beta versions. The beta versions should be production ready
but may not have all the features or a final user interface.
The beta phase can take another 6 months or more.
Note: Each beta release expires after about two
months. A newer beta is always available before expiration.
This ensures that bugs are reported for the latest version,
and that we don't receive reports for bugs that are already
fixed.
Phase 3: Release
We release
a new version only when the beta users tell us it is ready.
Beta users are informed when we have stopped development
and have released the new version to production. The final beta
will not expire for at least two months after the new release
starts shipping.
