Why is it taking a long time to get Macrium Reflect 8 ready for release?  How long is it still in testing for?  I read the February 12, 2021 post on ghacks.net that says it will be released in March 2021.

Gee... I wonder what GHACKS knows that we don't know?  I can't answer any of your questions, Keith... and I'm not sure anyone else here can either.  If Macrium won't respond, you'll just have to wait...

...and I might add, if I was Macrium I would surely wanna make this release as trouble free as possible for its users... especially after the result of the myriad of issues that followed the release of v7.

I figure the longer we wait, the better the released product will be.

Even setting aside that March 2021 isn't over yet, why do you think GHacks is a reliable source of information on release timeframe given that the article author didn't indicate a source for that tidbit and that Macrium thus far hasn't provided any release timeframe information on their own website or forum?  Why would you assume that the V8 beta length is purely based on time required for testing as opposed to Macrium possibly having started the beta when users could begin testing some of the new features while Macrium continued to work on building remaining new features that they've decided need to be part of V8?  Why would you think that after already asking this question in two other threads you created and elsewhere in other people's threads -- and not getting a response from Macrium on any of them -- that somehow THIS thread would be the one that made a difference?  So many questions!

Software development takes the amount of time it takes.  It's probably taken a bit longer over the past year thanks to everyone working on their own from home, which might particularly affect a product like this where testing on a variety of physical hardware is important.  I'm not sure whether you'd want Macrium to release V8 sooner by shipping it with fewer new features or with more bugs, but it will launch when it launches.

While I do not like to disagree with JP, I think some of his comments are true for Macrium, but NOT for a lot of software developers.  I know several software developers (at least one whose product I use) that release software based on a date, NOT on whether it is actually ready for prime time.  They then provide updates every couple of weeks or so to fix all the bugs found in their initial release.  Macrium, tends to work the way JP describes how a new release should be handled -: get it working THEN announce a release date. 

I appreciate that Macrium handles upgrades the way they do.  As mentioned, there was a bad experience when V7 was released and I am sure Macrium (and Reflect users) would not like to have that happen again.  Hopefully they will not do the release until they AND the beta testers thing it is ready.  Even then, there could be a few issues that only occur for a very small number of users.

At least Macrium is not pulling the current video game developer trick: pick a release date for a game and release it on that date, even if it doesn't work.  Then, post release, ship patches and updates until it does work.  I'd rather a software/video game work BEFORE it's released and then patched after bugs are found post release.

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Drac144 - 25 March 2021 9:38 PM

While I do not like to disagree with JP, I think some of his comments are true for Macrium, but NOT for a lot of software developers.  I know several software developers (at least one whose product I use) that release software based on a date, NOT on whether it is actually ready for prime time.  They then provide updates every couple of weeks or so to fix all the bugs found in their initial release.  Macrium, tends to work the way JP describes how a new release should be handled -: get it working THEN announce a release date.

I don't think we're necessarily disagreeing.  I said, "Software development takes the amount of time it takes."  But I didn't say, "All software developers actually take that amount of time before they release their software."   More frequent releases on a predictable schedule does seem to be the new trendy model -- very likely related to the growing trend of selling software on a subscription basis -- but I personally am not sold on it.  The promise was that consumers would get new, shiny things more quickly, but still on a schedule that allowed for planned testing periods.  Windows 10 has been released under that model for a few years now, with releases supposedly arriving roughly every 6 months around April and October, and I wouldn't say it has gone so well.  Several such releases have had some fairly serious bugs, up to and including permanent deletion of user data, which occurred for a non-trivial number of customers on some recent Windows 10 update.  And this constant focus on rapidly building new features seems to have left me in a constant state of simply exchanging one set of bugs for another, rather than ever getting to a point where a given feature state of the product actually works.

FYI: I subscribe to the Macrium newsletter and in either the January or February newsletter that stated Macrium is still on target to release v8 by end of Q1 2021.

The March newsletter stated in closing:
"That's all for this edition - we'll be back next month as we move even closer to the release of Macrium Reflect 8."

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Drac144 - 25 March 2021 9:38 PM

While I do not like to disagree with JP, I think some of his comments are true for Macrium, but NOT for a lot of software developers.  I know several software developers (at least one whose product I use) that release software based on a date, NOT on whether it is actually ready for prime time.  ...

I have no inside information, but I'd bet it's not the developers that set the release date for most products.  Those products (such as a competitor to Macrium Reflect) that get released on a schedule - regardless of problems uncovered during beta tests - are probably released over the objections of the developers ... especially if those developers are also the level 2 (or higher) support team.

Well, since we're all engaging in speculation here , I'm gonna add my 2-cents.  I've been involved in many Beta development programs along my timeline and Patrick's "bet" above has been true in many, many cases... some of them provided minor disasters at release time.

[Speculation] In the case of Macrium, I have assisted them in (2) of the last (3) product releases.  With v6 it was an unOFISHUL assistance.  The app would up in the wild and a bunch of us jumped into the fray and found many issues.  We set up an unOfishul feedback path to the Macrium developers and I'm sure they found our discoveries very useful.

Since v6 went so well, I offered my services once again prior to the v7 release.  They politely declined, saying they would be doing almost all of it in house.  When v7 was released it had many issues and took a while to straighten out the release.

For v8, it looks as though much work was done in house, but an "ofishul" public Beta was offered to a select group of clients, mainly based on their product expertise and each being "almost experts" in their particular area of product use... I was offered an invitation to the public Beta.  From what I've seen during this phase, the public part of the Beta has been extremely useful to the Macrium developers, uncovering many fringe areas of product performance.  Like v6, these types of "in the wild" testing usually produce many extreme cases which may break or make certain areas of product performance.  I would like to think, speculating here of course, that Macrium may have learned something from their in-house only Beta testing of v7 and decided that "in the wild" testing, controlled or otherwise, is a very valuable value added process to the entire Beta program... I know I would if I was a product developer.  As a result of this type of feedback, I'm sure a much better product will arrive at v8's doorstep. [/Speculation]