Did you know that the public beta for CF2020 (or “CF2021”, as I think the name will be) is now open, since August 2020? It’s formally known by its code-name, “Project Stratus”, or as some call it, “CF Next”. What matters most is that it’s one of the boldest new versions of CF in quite some time.

And you could certainly just visit the link offered for the prerelease and go to town. But I have found that some people have either missed things there or couldn’t readily find them. So I created a blog post (on my own site), elaborating on the topic here, “Getting started with “Project Stratus” public beta, aka CF2021.”

In that post, I cover:

• How easily anyone can join the public beta (Don’t miss all that’s on the prerelease front page)
• Available documentation resources, don’t miss them! (The 500-page (!) release notes, and separate system requirements and known issues docs)
• Getting help with the prerelease, don’t go it alone! (Filing bug reports, feature requests for the prerelease; asking for help and learning in the available prerelease forums)
• The available installers and more
• A taste of what’s new (more to come in a later post)
• About the use of the codename, Project Stratus

I didn’t just want to duplicate the post in both places, but I thought the content above was potentially useful enough to all CF users to warrant helping ensure they knew about the information I share in that other post.

The focus there is not on “what’s new” (I offer a brief list there, and will share more in a later post), but it really just “how to get started”, especially during the beta (or “prerelease”) as some things are not as obvious as they perhaps should be. In fact, I make some pointed suggestions that I hope Adobe will consider, as well as share tips for you in the meantime.