“A little over a year ago, I met with Dave Young to talk about joining him at Joyent. I was intrigued from the start, but he hooked me with a 15-minute diatribe against the inanity of seemingly never-ending ‘public betas’ for web sites. It was a rant that could have come out of my own mouth. In short, we both agreed that permanent ‘betas’ are bullshit — as are any public betas that last more than a few weeks. You’re either ready to ship, or you’re not. Slapping a ‘beta’ badge on your logo doesn’t cover for any actual flaws or shortcomings in your software. It’s this decade’s equivalent of the 90’s ‘under construction’ GIF animation.”