Clare Redstone writes:

I don't know enough about how new releases are named. Does alpha mean this Mailman 3 is now ready for general use? Should I ask my host provider to move us to it? I'm a bog-standard user so not ready for something that is still going through early tests and doesn't have everything set up yet.

Unless you have special needs, or want to learn everything you always wanted to know about Mailman but were afraid to ask, you don't want your provider using alphas at all, and you personally probably don't want to use a beta installation.

Just in case you really are "special", a little more about "alpha" and "beta":

"Alpha tests" are tests conducted by developers, more or less in "laboratory conditions". Alpha tests can be done at any time after the first line of code is written. Mailman 3 is in much better shape than that, but it is still incomplete, and not ready for general use. Doing an alpha test sometimes requires writing code to fake features that haven't been written yet and things like that. Alpha testing is for people who think that's fun.

"Beta tests" are conducted in field conditions, by users (from your point of view, you are not a user, your host provider is the user). Since people are really using the software, as well as testing it, it has to be fairly complete. Mailman 3 is not yet at that stage. Beta tests sometimes uncover bad bugs that only happen under heavy load, or in conditions that the alpha testers failed to imagine. So beta testers are either volunteers, developers, or perhaps ordinary users who desperately need the new features provided (sort of like taking a newly developed drug). In any case, a beta tester should be prepared to put in a certain amount of time and a minimum of skill in dealing with surprises. Few providers can afford the time and probably most don't really have the skills (the skills needed are more like development than administration).