For those who wish to remain on an earlier version automatic update should be disable to ensure they don’t run into problems in future until they are able purchase an upgrade.
This document describes how major version releases and maintenance updates are handled for Freedom Scientific BLV family or software products.
• Freedom Scientific product major upgrades have a version release cadence of approximately a year (usually late October) somewhat similar to the way Microsoft now have an annual release cadence for their operating systems.
• At the point of release (late October) the new major version release becomes the shipping version and is actively developed with maintenance releases. The previous release will then generally not receive future software updates unless for exceptional reasons.
• Technical support for a given release is available for beyond its period of active development but that also means software fixes will only be available for the current shipping version of the product.
• For users with current authorisation the upgrade process is fairly straightforward but for those users with earlier product authorisation will find that upon installation of the latest version upgrade their product will be put into 40 minute demo mode. The old version is left and the system and can be reverted back to the previous product version as this is not uninstalled. However, Technical Support may need to assist.
• For those with current software also being actively or continuously developed such as Microsoft Office 365 upgrading to the current version is highly advised.
For those who wish to remain on an earlier version automatic update should be disable to ensure they don’t run into problems in future until they are able purchase an upgrade.
• All maintenance updates are free for users with current authorisation.
• Maintenance update frequency is roughly monthly. The first maintenance update is typically posted early December after a major version release late October.
• These updates typically resolve bugs but sometimes extend existing features as well.
• Maintenance updates are optional but are highly recommended.
• Users on systems with limited login will not be able to install these updates. The assistance of local IT maybe required to install the updates.
• Users optionally can purchase major version upgrades via an SMA (Software Maintenance Agreement). This allows customer to purchase upgrades in advance at a favourable rate compared to purchasing upgrades individually as and when they happen. the two consecutive upgrade versions for a favourable price.
• ILM authorisation users have their upgrades automatically added to their license.
• Dongle users will usually have these upgrades added to a dongle license via an update file.