Release Types
Because the software is open source and has no formal support, OGCS is released as alphas and betas to indicate it might not be as polished a product as one that is being sold and has telephone support! However, having been available for several years and constantly being improved, it is a stable product - the naming is now simply more to do with the frequency of releases.
Alpha
The most recent version of the applicaton, with more regular updates than the beta. If you want to see the latest functionality, or see if a possible bug has already been fixed, you should use the alpha release.
Beta
After several alphas have been released, the new features and improvements will be “rolled up” into a new beta release. If you don’t need new features and prefer to work on an application that doesn’t require frequent updates, then the beta is probably for you.
Application Versions
Both release types of the software can either be installed or run as a “portable” application. The installed version will suffice for the majority of people.
In terms of functionality, both versions are the same, but here’s a quick comparison:
| Installed | Portable | |
|---|---|---|
| Set Up | Download the Setup.exe file, double-click it to execute, and OGCS will start. |
Download the Portable ZIP file and then extract the compressed files to a location of your choosing. Double-click the OutlookGoogleCalendarSync.exe executable file to start OGCS. |
| Application Location | The local APPDATA folder for the user. |
Anywhere, possibly a USB drive. |
| Upgrading OGCS | Simply accept the upgrade prompt when a newer version is detected. | The newer ZIP file will need manually downloading, either to replace the existing location of OGCS, or a new location. |
| OS Permissions Required | None. | None. |
| Multiple versions | Only one version at a time. | Each extracted application is standalone, so multiple versions is fine. You may want this to experiment with different releases of OGCS. |
| Multiple Google accounts | Only one. | Settings are specific to each extract of OGCS, by default. Further details in the wiki. |
| Sync multiple calendars | From v2.9.3 | From v2.9.3. Or configure a single calendar for each deployment of an earlier release. |