Is there any approximate release date for the next beta?

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I apologize in advance if this has been covered elsewhere, but I was curious about the release cadence in relation to the beta / stable channel? Is a new beta close to being released? Are “Experimental” releases akin to RC’s from other projects?

Thanks in advance!

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Unfortunately, as an open source & volunteer project it is very difficult to estimate how much time people will be able to donate to working on Duplicati. As a result of that absolute dates for release are pretty much impossible - though we do get hints from time to time when kenkendk posts comments saying a new experimental is coming “soon” or “this month”.

The different channels are described more fully in the link below, but the short answer is:

  • stable: no known major (and few if any minor) issues
  • beta: tested and on the way to stable, while likely to have some errors nothing major has been found
  • experimental: cutting edge introduction of features, likely NOT fully tested so might have some serious errors
  • canary: testing of new features & bug fixes, a way for developers to get updated code out to end users with specific issues or needs

Note that technically Duplicati 2 has yet to reach the stable channel, but the beta channel has been found stable-enough by many users / business for every day use. (That’s a testament to the effort the developers put into their code, not a recommendation for people to consider beta production ready.)

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It’s not unreasonable to expect the next beta release to ship within a few weeks after an experimental.

It usually follows shortly after experimental. That release is mostly to have a “locked” canary version where we can put last minute fixes into before the beta release.

This is important because most canaries include both features and fixes, so they all have potential to break something and finding and fixing these issues can take a few weeks.

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