One of the benefits of Open Source development is that you have a lot of community members to kick the tires and make sure everything is working correctly before you finalize a release.  In the past DotNetNuke has limited our beta releases.  Usually it would start with a small internal team and move from there to a selected group of public beta testers.  We generally did not hold wide open public betas.  This year we are changing all of that.  We have added many resources to the team that allows us to better manage the beta testing process.  We are also busy adding new tools to make this process much more automated.  As a result, we are better able to handle wider releases and more frequent releases.

I am happy to announce that DotNetNuke 5.2.0 Beta is now available for download.  You can find out more information on the Beta Testing page on DotNetNuke.com.  This is just one of many changes you will see in the coming months to open up the release process.  We believe these changes give people greater visibility into the state of the project, and foster greater community involvement and are excited to be making these positive steps forward.  We will be announcing even more changes at OpenForce Connections.

Please note: Do not apply beta test software to production websites.  Always ensure you backup files and data before attempting any upgrade.  You will not be able to upgrade automatically from one beta build to another, or from beta builds to the final release. Beta testing software is for testing purposes only.