Going about beta-testing a program... advice?

[Madison Kelly]

Wil McGilvery wrote:
> Why does it need to be GPL?
> 
> If is isn't GPL you probably won't get a community of people helping you, but tons of companies allow for beta testing. This is so bugs can be worked out and beta testers can offer opinions on the product before a final version is sold.
> 
> As an aside I use Microlite Backupedge. I find the interface easy enough for my staff to use, it works with a variety of devices and the price is right. 
> 
> It also has a very easy disaster recovery system.
> 
> Since some people have already offered up which program they like. I would be interested in a feature list so that I can compare what you are offering to what is already on the market. 
> 
> Regards,

   Thanks for the feedback! Here is a feature list off the top of my 
head (I will do a proper one a little closer to releasing it). It is 
what I have written so far for the help system though I haven't properly 
edited it yet: (for the record it does not yet support CD/DVD-R drives 
though that is planned. How soon it will be implemented depends on 
demand). If you are interested I can post a few screen shots. I don't 
want to post those without a request first though for fear of sounding 
like I am being too pushy.

  [-= Warning, marketting-type spiel follows :) =-]

It is a backup program:
- It can backup any mounted filesystem.
- Any partition with a UUID can be specified as a source or destination 
(assigned by 'blkid', part of the 'e2fsprogs' package).
- Files and directories can be selected or excluded from backup using a 
familiar tree-based file browser.

It is an archival program:
- Source and destination partitions can be labeled with a descriptive 
label such as a catalogue number.
- Any partition can be search even if the physical medium is offline.
- Search results show the descriptive label of the media containing the 
file or directory making locating the proper medium simple.
- Detailed information is stored on every file and directory.
- Files copied onto a destination manually or otherwise will be added to 
the searchable catalogue on the next update.
- File and directory information in the database is frequently and 
automatically updated.

It is easy to use:
- Many modern distributions like Fedora Core pre-install everything 
'TLE-BU' needs to run.
- It installs on top of a Linux machine requiring only Perl, 
PostgresSQL, and standard shell programs.
- It is made available to users through any webserver that supports CGI 
scripts such as Apache.
- Once installed, no knowledge of Linux is required and it can be 
manipulated from any web browser under any operating system.
- There is extensive, easy to read, help documentation throughout the 
program.

It is easy to administer:
- All warnings and errors are presented in an easy to understand fashion.
- It has a build-in log viewer with detailed and easy to read entries.

It is secure:
- Security is handled by the system (ie: 'iptables') and the web 
browser; known and tested to be extremely secure.
- Simply stopping the web-server can block all access to the program 
after it has been configured.

It is very flexible:
- Runs on 2.4.x and 2.6.x linux kernels.
- Multiple backup jobs can be created with individual run times.
- Multiple sources and destinations can be selected for each backup job.
- Backup jobs do not need to be updated when files, directories, sources 
or destination are added or removed.
- It intelligently searches available destinations before assigning each 
source directory:
- It updates previously backed up copies of a source directory when 
found maximizing efficient use of disk space.
- Uses 'rsync' to only copy the parts of a file that have changed when 
updating previously saved files minimizing disk activity.
- Can backup multiple sources to multiple destinations simultaneously 
regardless of overlap.
- Souce and destination partitions will be used in an intelligent order, 
regardless of what order or how they are connected.
- Source and destination partitions to not need to be mounted before use.
- Any filesystem Linux knows how to read or write from can be used as a 
source and any that it can write to can be used as a destination.

Data backed up by 'TLE-BU' is easily recoverable:
- Files are directly written to the destination partition. No special 
software in needed to read the backed-up data.
- Data can be recovered simply by mounting the storage medium under any 
operating system that can read it's filesystem.
- 'TLE-BU' is NOT required to copy or recover the files!
- 'TLE-BU' uses standard hard drives connected via USB, Firewire, IDE, 
SerialATA, SCSI and/or Fiber-Channel.

Flexible capacity and performance:
- It can run on anything from a laptop with a single USB drive through 
to very large servers with dozens of drives.
- Destination capacity is limited only by the number and size of the 
drives, arrays and SANs your system can handle.
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