[Beltalowda]

I typically update to .0 on my dev machine ASAP, and if there are no problems after a bit I'll update the server to .0 (or usually .1, since that'll usually be out by then).

I think that's a nice compromise; although not a "real" test as the load is a lot less. Also things may work in dev but not production, but unless you explicitly use new features that's rare.

For larger setups you can us canary servers and whatnot, but I prefer to work at small companies and keep my sanity.

[thewataccount]

For context my ideal setup has at least 3 environments - prod, qa/testing before release, and dev. With dev being the most likely to break, and the qa/testing for when we need to be absolutely certain that differences between prod and dev aren't masking any bugs.

I do like the idea of "canary versioning" some stuff. It's a bit of a game theory issue isn't it, since we all need prod to work at all times and can't risk a .0, and a major version difference between dev and prod can mask some nasty issues in my experience.