Auto Check for FW Public Beta

State of Epicicity

Fractal Fanatic
For an option in settings to check automatically for firmware updates of any kind, including public betas, and to display a pop up screen if one comes available.

Thanks for your consideration!
 
I think majority of customers think Betas are official firmware releases and this would probably not go well. Many don’t backup either and would be stuck with a potential bug and not have a way to get back.
 
I think majority of customers think Betas are official firmware releases and this would probably not go well. Many don’t backup either and would be stuck with a potential bug and not have a way to get back.
I think that feature would work well as a setting and optional, with disclaimers reiterating the dangers of beta. I'm thinking of, e.g. two checkboxes, something like Notify Official Updates, and one below, Include Beta. The same danger of preset and setting loss applies, and the same misunderstanding applies whether a notification exists or not. Not to mention, I believe the current disclaimer about the dangers of not backing up your presets and settings, exist whenever you're overwriting firmware anyway. I think there's only so much you can do to mitigate people not reading warnings, but this feature would be helpful to people who do understand that beta is for testing and for those, e.g., not on their way to a gig or a session. None of the rest of the AxeFX is geared toward people who don't read manuals; I don't see this differently.
 
I don't think the beta should be given a wide notice - if you're following along in the forum, you're at least an engaged user and can make an educated decision about installing it.

For something unofficial, if you follow the Fractal groups on Facebook - there's pretty immediate notification of releases there.
I disagree about this, you are arguing a further mitigation against those who do not read, and I offer the same counter argument: absolutely nothing about this unit is geared toward those who don't read. The more people involved in beta testing, the more who may find bugs, but just as importantly, the more who may find the elusive coding error with regard to a block's sound, as was found with the 5153 Red in one of the Cygnus betas. Some of the gear modelled here is so obscure (of course not the 5153), maybe only a handful of Fractal users have the real thing and could tell something's off (look at yek's writeup from years ago about the CA3+ with owner's of the real unit chiming in about the differences between the model and the real thing); if they happen not to be involved in the forum, or, as you mention, the facebook group, they'd not know about the betas.

For every single feature that's described in the owner's manual, block manual, FC manual, FC switch manual, tone match manual, and the entire wiki, not to mention this very forum, some people will not search for answers and some people will not read. To mitigate against those people is like coding for the lowest common denominator rather than enhancing the product with useful features.
 
For an option in settings to check automatically for firmware updates of any kind, including public betas, and to display a pop up screen if one comes available.

Thanks for your consideration!
+1. It's fairly common these days to have a launch screen that shows recent news about the product.
 
you've just described customer service and ease of use. (to a certain degree.)
Yeah, the AxeFX and FCs require understanding Cliff's unique approach. I'm for the complexity, and I love that this unit is not "dumbed down," for lack of a better term. Even the arrangement of Channels and Scenes is unique for a guitar processor, as well as the proprietary switching with the FCs that does not involve traditional MIDI. All this is very cool, and totally not something you'd understand without reading about. Even Cliff's explanations on this forum sometimes are only comprehensible in the context of a deep knowledge of electrical engineering and the history of guitar amps. Similarly, the idea of being notified that betas are available is not for the uninformed.

I feel that, customer service-wise, this tendency of FAS not to shy away from complexity is in respect to the customer. I'm sure there are people right now who lose data because they don't backup. If mitigation is a huge issue, perhaps auto-prompting the user to a backup, and autoloading the Fractal-Bot Receive mode would be a good automation to run at any beta installation.
 
+1. It's fairly common these days to have a launch screen that shows recent news about the product.
Yeah, I was totally thinking about the SWS extensions for Reaper as well as ProcessLasso, which have the option of checking for updates automatically, but also whether or not to exclude betas; I always go for the betas with SWS, but never for ProcessLasso. With ProcessLasso you could make you PC inoperable if it screws up or you screw up in your settings; still a wonderful program. :)
 
As far as I'm aware, Axe-Edit only checks the "official" download location on Fractal's website.

Betas are never posted there as far as I can remember. Only posted on the forum.

Even full releases sometimes don't get to the official location (and thus no prompt to update) for a few days after being posted here.
 
Instead of automatically searching for available beta models, there could be a toggle in Settings -> Preferences to allow someone to opt-in to early release notifications.
 
Instead of automatically searching for available beta models, there could be a toggle in Settings -> Preferences to allow someone to opt-in to early release notifications.
That's what I'm thinking with a second option in auto searching for updates to include betas.
 
+1 Options are nice. It's an option! It can come with a warning. I think everyone understands "beta" is risky anyway.

It could do the reset after firmware thing, too.

That said, is not too hard to just keep checking the forum you're already checking. 😂
 
On the surface this seems like a great idea, but it's opening up a major can of worms for Fractal's support people, and to the forum and to those in the forum who want to help answer questions but don't want to keep answering the same questions again and again.

There's a balance between automation and manual processes. When we're talking about working with beta code and the associated responsibilities that go with working with it, automation of allowing immediate notification of beta is not good.

Beta isn't for the majority of users, nor should they have something that will throw open the gates to that world by a simple click, because too many people think they are cowboys and want to ride the range in search of the wild west, living on the wild and wooly edge, but, when there's a problem they don't know how to fend for themselves and dig into the documentation or triangulate the problem and figure out whether they did something wrong or was it in their machine or was it in the software. They immediately toss it to the forum as a bug, then find out after major backlash that it was their own fault, or their machine was misconfigured (again their own fault), or, yeah, it's a bug but they didn't provide any useful information to help debug or isolate the problem until a multitude of people pried the information out of them about what was REALLY wrong.

Instead, if anything, Fractal should announce a beta, and people can apply for it and be vetted. Eventually, in the veeeery final stages of testing, if Fractal wants to open it up, then they could announce it's a public beta, and the dog pile can begin.

Lest I sound like a curmudgeon, which I admit I am, I've been a developer, and alpha and beta tester for SO many years and for different companies that I'm glad I'm out of it. I've been on both sides of the fence and know who is and isn't a good candidate for helping test. We do NOT want to open that gate unless someone comes loudly and deliberately knocking. Opening the floodgate will distract from Fractal's main goal of delivering systems we enjoy, and we don't want that at all.

I'm not associated with Fractal, don't speak for them, but I do dearly love their style and ethic, and want to help them be focused on making the most kick-ass modeler in the world. We should all be protective of that.
 
On the surface this seems like a great idea, but it's opening up a major can of worms for Fractal's support people, and to the forum and to those in the forum who want to help answer questions but don't want to keep answering the same questions again and again.

There's a balance between automation and manual processes. When we're talking about working with beta code and the associated responsibilities that go with working with it, automation of allowing immediate notification of beta is not good.

Beta isn't for the majority of users, nor should they have something that will throw open the gates to that world by a simple click, because too many people think they are cowboys and want to ride the range in search of the wild west, living on the wild and wooly edge, but, when there's a problem they don't know how to fend for themselves and dig into the documentation or triangulate the problem and figure out whether they did something wrong or was it in their machine or was it in the software. They immediately toss it to the forum as a bug, then find out after major backlash that it was their own fault, or their machine was misconfigured (again their own fault), or, yeah, it's a bug but they didn't provide any useful information to help debug or isolate the problem until a multitude of people pried the information out of them about what was REALLY wrong.

Instead, if anything, Fractal should announce a beta, and people can apply for it and be vetted. Eventually, in the veeeery final stages of testing, if Fractal wants to open it up, then they could announce it's a public beta, and the dog pile can begin.

Lest I sound like a curmudgeon, which I admit I am, I've been a developer, and alpha and beta tester for SO many years and for different companies that I'm glad I'm out of it. I've been on both sides of the fence and know who is and isn't a good candidate for helping test. We do NOT want to open that gate unless someone comes loudly and deliberately knocking. Opening the floodgate will distract from Fractal's main goal of delivering systems we enjoy, and we don't want that at all.

I'm not associated with Fractal, don't speak for them, but I do dearly love their style and ethic, and want to help them be focused on making the most kick-ass modeler in the world. We should all be protective of that.
Interesting perspective; what you wrote actually gives me pause. I've never been a coder. I can totally see what you're saying about it really gumming up the works for meaningful development, and going back and reading everyone else's counter arguments to me in this thread, I'm thinking about all of them in a new light. It's making think of it this way: that I'm inherently thinking everyone will approach a beta notification thoughtfully, carefully, and respectfully, but it is relatively rare for people en masse to act that way. Even for those who go for the betas as they are, in the forum alone, that repeated mantra of Refresh after New FW is a reminder of how little people pay attention to important elements.

Thanks to all who've been arguing against me here; it's disheartening to think of the reasons for the downsides of this idea, but it is, admittedly, realistic.
 
Interesting perspective; what you wrote actually gives me pause. I've never been a coder. I can totally see what you're saying about it really gumming up the works for meaningful development, and going back and reading everyone else's counter arguments to me in this thread, I'm thinking about all of them in a new light. It's making think of it this way: that I'm inherently thinking everyone will approach a beta notification thoughtfully, carefully, and respectfully, but it is relatively rare for people en masse to act that way. Even for those who go for the betas as they are, in the forum alone, that repeated mantra of Refresh after New FW is a reminder of how little people pay attention to important elements.

Thanks to all who've been arguing against me here; it's disheartening to think of the reasons for the downsides of this idea, but it is, admittedly, realistic.
I appreciate your thoughtful response.

My wife/partner, loves to tell me I'm pessimistic, and I'll quietly tell her I'm a realist, a pessimistic optimist, or an optimistic pessimist, one of those things. I walk both sides of the fence, and have lived the pain, and, having lived through the development wars for too many years, I feel deeply for those, like in Fractal, who are pouring their hearts into these products.

We should do the same. Too many won't. But, some get it and will. I'm optimistically pessimistic about it. :)
 
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Maybe offering an "opt-in" function for updates would be a solution to keep it flexible.
Similar to this settings panel. Sorry, my systems language is set to German. But I think it's understandable to have "check for beta versions" as an option.
Bildschirmfoto 2021-03-30 um 16.12.37.png
 
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