An early testing, pre-release version of a program, which may still have bugs, or features that don't work. See beta version.
a development version, it's not for use outside the development team, it is implicitally a debug build, and as far as I'm concerned an end user would never see it
an early proof-of-concept program in which ideas are first formed
an internal team release - it is pre-beta version and is released only in order to help development, not to be properly playable
a very early release and will likely contain bugs, so this version is only meant to give you an idea of what is possible with this technology and discuss it here
the first released version of new software often made available over the Internet as freeware or shareware. Sometimes these versions are quite unstable. It is usually better to wait until the beta version is released.
An alpha version of a program is also known as a "pilot" version, which can be tested for overall usability and training effectiveness. You know, the pilot version, where the program is actually tested by a real sample population and then refined before final roll-out. What? You've never done that
