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Subject: continual releases in computer chess

Author: Vasik Rajlich

Date: 01:52:00 02/12/06


Hello,

my experience with various releases over the past two months has been quite
positive, and one of the things that I have tossing over in my mind is the idea
of continuing a sort of "rolling release schedule" for versions of Rybka after
1.2. Customers would pay for a subscription, rather than for a specific release.

Probably, the release schedule would be on the order of once per one or two
months.

If this happens, of course existing customers will have their order turned into
a subscription which starts when Rybka 1.2 is ready. In fact, I'd probably add
some sort of a bonus for the early customers.

There are three problematic issues:

1) How to combine it in the future with CD sales.
2) How to convince someone whose subscription period just expired to renew
immediately, when the next update will be only marginally better than the
previous one. Basically, in that scenario, you are selling the future.
3) This whole approach depends on continual progress, and loses its point when
progress comes to a crawl.

This last point is probably the most important. Note that it's not only a
question of engine strength - for example, once the UCI-KNEX (knowledge
extensions) are out, then a faster release schedule will again make more sense.

Naturally, this isn't strictly a computer chess issue. For a bit more eloquent
general justification, please see here (scroll down to the section on
"Releases"):

http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html

In the case of computer chess, here is why I think customers win:

1) The cutting-edge functionality is delivered immediately, rather than after a
two to twelve month window of waiting for the next release
2) The final product is better, because
   a) it is better-tested
   b) it is possible for the developer to try more radical features and get
feedback
3) It's more fun

There is also one additional nice point:

4) Piracy requires more work

Vas



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