There are a lot of programs being released each day that change our lives. Every computer user uses various programs every day, so it is important to know some things about them. If you spend a lot of time on the Internet, then you have probably came across the term alpha or beta. Most likely you came across the term beta more often than alpha. What do those two terms mean? As software requires time to develop, companies that produce it will want to release an unfinished product to the narrow group of public for them to test it. They do it so that improvements can be made. This is a so-called alpha or beta stage. Usually, alpha means an earlier stage than beta, and in most cases public is not allowed to alpha, but rather beta. This way a company is asking the public to test a product, which is closed to being completely developed. Products in alpha stages are usually being tested by employees of that company; however, there are some exceptions to this rule. There are many regular Internet users who participated in beta tests. Most of them claim it was fun, as they had a chance to use a program before anyone else could. However, since products in the alpha and beta stage might be quite buggy, it is important to be aware of that, and do not have too high expectations.