Is the latest 7.4 beta close enough?

[aubuti]

Is the 7.4 beta out there now essentially the final -- or will there be changes made today/Monday? I'm home all day Monday and have time to install during the day. Or should I wait for the final to be released.

What is the "must have" feature for you in 7.4? If you don't have one, I wouldn't rush to be the first on your block to install it. I've been running 7.4 for months because it was required for hardware testing, but if you haven't used 7.4 yet and there's nothing in it that you need pronto, I'd advise waiting for the dust to settle. On more that one occasion I've seen perfectly fine pre-release versions get mangled by some last minute "fixes" to the installation routine or something. Give it a week or two if you can.

[eap]

What is the "must have" feature for you in 7.4? If you don't have one, I wouldn't rush to be the first on your block to install it. I've been running 7.4 for months because it was required for hardware testing, but if you haven't used 7.4 yet and there's nothing in it that you need pronto, I'd advise waiting for the dust to settle. On more that one occasion I've seen perfectly fine pre-release versions get mangled by some last minute "fixes" to the installation routine or something. Give it a week or two if you can.

"Upgrade to 7.4 Required
The magnitude of the improvements require previous 7.x users to upgrade to this release."

[andyg]

The wiki is unnecessarily scary, I've updated the text to read:

Upgrade to 7.4 Required (SqueezeNetwork users only)

The magnitude of the improvements require previous 7.x users to upgrade to this release. Find out more about upgrading to 7.4 by clicking here.

If you are running SqueezeCenter, you are of course not required to upgrade. Music Services will continue to work as before.

[eap]

The wiki is unnecessarily scary, I've updated the text to read:

Will there be more changes to 7.4 today - or is it essentially finished?

I'm home all day and will have time to mess with it today.

[andyg]

I really hope it's done at this point.

Note we've disabled the nightly builds so the last beta version you can get is 28660. Look for the official version later today.

[maggior]

The wiki is unnecessarily scary, I've updated the text to read:

I'm glad you changed that. It made me take pause, but then I thought it had to be a mistake - it didn't make any sense.

[aubuti]

"Upgrade to 7.4 Required
The magnitude of the improvements require previous 7.x users to upgrade to this release."

Sorry, I guess I should have been more explicit. What I meant to say was it's not a "must have" unless it really is absolutely a requirement in your specific case. Reading between the lines of the original wiki posting (the entire entry, not only your excerpt) it was apparent that the "requirement" is mostly an issue if you use both SC and SN. Andy's rewrite of the wiki has now made that clearer.

[maggior]

What is the "must have" feature for you in 7.4? If you don't have one, I wouldn't rush to be the first on your block to install it. I've been running 7.4 for months because it was required for hardware testing, but if you haven't used 7.4 yet and there's nothing in it that you need pronto, I'd advise waiting for the dust to settle. On more that one occasion I've seen perfectly fine pre-release versions get mangled by some last minute "fixes" to the installation routine or something. Give it a week or two if you can.

Very sound advice. I've learned to do this the hard way. It's always good to let the dust settle and wait for the x.x.1 release.

Aside from potential stability issues, I'm concerned about the major changes to the UI's, especially the controller. Everybody in the house is used to the way it is now, so unless there is a compelling reason to update, I'm going to stick with 7.3.3.

[pablolie]

Very sound advice. I've learned to do this the hard way. It's always good to let the dust settle and wait for the x.x.1 release.
...

While it's a good idea, there are also 2 other things to consider:

1. Sometimes you don't get much of a choice (example: SqueezeNetwork users will probably get instructed to upgrade their firmware right away, and mixed environment users will have to upgrade to 7.4 o avoid firmware limb between both mods)

2. I often tell myself "this time I am really sticking with the stable environment", only to get a bit bored and get curious... and upgrade to the latest and greatest "stable" version (I do not do beta versions though).

[Ikabob]

This is kind of like getting the flu shot.