It's a Beta World out there folks. Maybe a little more testing might have helped some programs survive the incredibly cutthroat market of software manufacturing. But releasing beta versions of software to the general public allegedly allows software makers to get free user feedback on their products before it hits the shelves. I once suggested to some friends of mine that Microsoft should come out with a 'Windows Lite' that has more of the options already sorted out for us already, so that we can spend more time working and less time tweaking. They all said they'd buy a copy in an instant.
Freedom of choice is one of our most important privileges.