The Vocabulary of Software Releases

I have a lot of conversations in which people use words like Beta, Alpha, and Prototype. Often there are different ideas about the definitions of these terms within the group pf people having the conversation and this can lead to confusion down the road.

This has been confusing enough that I decided to take some time and compile a glossary of terms used to describe the release packages throughout a release cycle. I will freely admit that much of what is in this post has been stolen and copied from around the web, mostly Wikipedia, but I think putting it all on one place as a reference is valuable.

That said, here is what I have so far. Let me know what you think and if this is useful to baseline your conversations.