[daleharvey]

I dont believe it backfires. People are fickle, you get lots of chances to make a first impression.

I think the key is clarity in your communication, doing a lot of polish on top of unstable software and advertising it as stable causes people to waste time using it, advertising as beta / for early adopters lets the early adopters pick it up and the people who just want it to 'just work' can wait. If you lose a few people who dont understand the benefits still far outweight the negatives.

This is mostly just a disclaimer for people who are waiting to open source their software until 'its ready', its never ready, do it now.