This year, we decided to beef up the LabVIEW beta program with more users and more involvement. For those of you who were not aware, we are now in beta 2 for LabVIEW Orion – you can register for the program here. (Even though we operate using cool project code names like “Saturn” and “Orion”, every year R&D lets the cat out of the bag when the beta goes out. Apparently the feature that has the longest lead time and must be nailed down first is changing the version from the code name to a number. When you sign up for the beta this year, you want to look for “LabVIEW 2009″).
We are also getting more hands on with our beta users. Rather than just have you download the beta version and figure things out on your own, we have recorded some videos showing the new features so you can get a quick overview of what we’ve added. We also have a beta forum where you can ask questions or comment on the new features – each feature area has a dedicated forum thread where they are discussed directly with the developers of that feature.
Even if you are not interested in banging on the new features in the beta, we recommend you download the new version and load up your current application to see if it runs. We’ve been focusing more on making the upgrade process more smooth over the past few years, hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
With our elevated focus on the beta this year, we’ve increased the number of beta users this year by more than 40%.
