BOINC since it started is a project in development, or so it seems to me.
There are actually only a few official "testers", so that we are the actual testers if we upgrade to the latest version(s).
Things also seem to get changed because one out of NN projects would like it, but actually makes things worse for the NN - 1 projects.
It has to work on several OS platforms.
And now we add CUDA to the mix.

My thoughts say:
If you are on XP or earlier stay with 5.10.nn but going a stable v6 is a possibility. (Which is the most stable V6?)
If you are on Vista, and want to do it with the better security of Vista use a V6.n.x
If you are CUDA enabled, then you must use a V6.2.x version. I wish you luck because you are at this stage Alpha testers, whether you want to be or not.

I used to upgrade to all the latest beta/alpha versions and found them to be very stable. As more features got added, and less testing seems to be done, I have shied away from the beta/alpha versions, and have even stayed away from the current "recommended" version until I hear the complaints settle.

From my personal experience, BOINC v6.2.19 seems quite solid. I'm using it on the majority of my machines (all Windows boxes) without issue so far. I'm skipping BOINC v6.4.x unless a more stable version than 6.4.5 is released, or barring that (if 6.4.x is abandoned in favor of newer source code) I'll just wait to see what happens with v6.6.x or possibly even 6.8.x. For the time being, I'm quite content with 6.2.19.

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My gaming machine I just leave on 5.10.45 as that seems to work just fine, the laptop is on 6.2.19 since it is running Windows 7 and the iMac is on 6.2.18 since it has 64-bit capability.

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If you are on XP or earlier stay with 5.10.nn but going a stable v6 is a possibility. (Which is the most stable V6?)

I agree with the comments by others: I've been using 6.2.19 since its official release, with no problems.

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BOINC since it started is a project in development, or so it seems to me.
There are actually only a few official "testers", so that we are the actual testers if we upgrade to the latest version(s).
Things also seem to get changed because one out of NN projects would like it, but actually makes things worse for the NN - 1 projects.
It has to work on several OS platforms.
And now we add CUDA to the mix.

My thoughts say:
If you are on XP or earlier stay with 5.10.nn but going a stable v6 is a possibility. (Which is the most stable V6?)
If you are on Vista, and want to do it with the better security of Vista use a V6.n.x
If you are CUDA enabled, then you must use a V6.2.x version. I wish you luck because you are at this stage Alpha testers, whether you want to be or not.

If you need cuda capability then 6.5.0 seems reliable except for shutting down apps on exit, but there is a work-around for that. Its still a "development" version though.

6.6.2 was the first version with the new work-fetch logic so its bound to have a few teething problems, but once they sort through that it should come good. It is still a "development" version. Being a "development" version it comes with risks, and you choose if you are prepared to run with it or not.

If you like stable versions then stick with the "release" versions, which leaves you with 6.2.19 or 6.4.5 if you need cuda.

My machines are all WinXP based and they have either 6.2.19 (non-cuda) or 6.5.0 (cuda).

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BOINC blog

I have upgraded to 6.4.5 twice now. Both times I have run into it not getting work consistently. Both times I have downgraded back to 6.2.19, which is where I will stay for awhile. It seems to be running good.

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Well you can't help test if you don't run the new versions :-)
I try to run it as soon as it comes out on windows XP, vista, windows7.
If no problems, I roll it out to my other machines as a wider test.
It is rare that I have had to go back to an earlier version.
I usually suggest people go with the suggested version after a few days that
it is out.
For problem testing, if all else fails, I suggest one back or the latest test version, to see if it fixes their problem.

I find a lot of time I get help questions saying that they are running the latest
version. When in fact they are not. You also have to take into consideration what operating system they have. As well as what BOINC projects that they are using.

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Mike Bader
BOINC V7.16.5
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_join_form.php?id=5 - Join Our International Team
[img]http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php?

Well you can't help test if you don't run the new versions :-)

But shouldn't testing be carried out by testers, preferably in a testing area, rather that offered as an option for anybody to use. Especially as it usually brings up lots of posts, in the wrong place i.e. at the projects rather that BOINC msg boards, and also can cause all sorts of havoc for the projects. As witnessed by the uncontrolled downloads for the CUDA users who are also, at the moment, testers of that program. Putting one test on top of another test is one thing you should never do. That's speaking as someone who has been involved in testing for nearly forty years.
I restrict my testing to the Seti Beta site (User ID 149) on computers I know are usually robust on other main sites such as here and Einstein.

I try to run it as soon as it comes out on windows XP, vista, windows7.
If no problems, I roll it out to my other machines as a wider test.
It is rare that I have had to go back to an earlier version.
I usually suggest people go with the suggested version after a few days that
it is out.
For problem testing, if all else fails, I suggest one back or the latest test version, to see if it fixes their problem.

I find a lot of time I get help questions saying that they are running the latest
version. When in fact they are not. You also have to take into consideration what operating system they have. As well as what BOINC projects that they are using.

But shouldn't testing be carried out by testers, preferably in a testing area, rather that offered as an option for anybody to use. Especially as it usually brings up lots of posts, in the wrong place i.e. at the projects rather that BOINC msg boards, and also can cause all sorts of havoc for the projects.

Complete testing requires enough users with enough different combinations of stuff to actually wring out the application completely.

Testers (especially those not officially reporting results) should report problems to the BOINC developers, and not in the project forums.

... and anyone running the latest test version should be expecting issues.

That said, I'm running 6.6.2, precisely because I don't have multiple cores or a fancy video card, and if it's going to be the release version someday it needs to be tested on a lot of configurations.

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We should resist answering a lot of alpha questions here.
Maybe there should be an alpha, beta and gamma test stage.
I think many times it is to push out a bug fix quickly.
CUDA is another whole issue :-)
As is optimized versions.
And way too many stickys on top.

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Mike Bader
BOINC V7.16.5
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_join_form.php?id=5 - Join Our International Team
[img]http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php?

Although I use 6.4.5 currently (no CUDA)

I would say my two most favorite, stable, releases have to be (in order):
1) 5.10.45/30
2) 6.2.19

I have had no problems with 6.4.5 on both rigs. But I might wait until 6.8 or maybe 7 for a new upgrade.

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- Luke.

I run 5.10.45 on all 3 of my machines but I don't run Cuda either.

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I am with Ozzfan, I used to stay with the latest when 5.x was around, but with the numerous issues cropping up in 6.x, some of which can have been fairly serious, I have decided to stay away from the development branch and have also been reluctant to upgrade to even the latest so-called stable versions.

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* I am running 6.5.0 on the two machines running CUDA apps for XP

* 5.10.45 on OS-X as the 6.x versions don not work with all projects because they changed the id string and several projects will not recognize the updated strings (CPDN had this problem in the past, not sure if they fixed it yet, RCN had it a couple weeks ago and have not responded to posts on the forums, I think Soduko had it in the past too).

* on Linux I am using 6.4.5 but to this point had not been able to get CUDA work (though now my card seems to have died)...

As to why there are more bugs, well, I report all I find on the Dev mailing list where they are almost never acknowledged and even more rarely addressed with a change. And before you tell me to start contributing, well, I did in the past and was ALWAYS told that my changes would not be used in the baseline ... as a for-instance I used to be able to do PHP coding and completely rewrote all the pages so that the emitted HTML would meet the W3C standards ...

As for other contributions ... well, remember your history and we know how well my other contributions were received by the powers that be ...

Just my take ...

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