OK, I am finally able to take a look at this thread and give it a short. As you prudently advised, I will first attempt this with a local device. I have some questions on this whole firmware update thing so, please indulge me or point me to the docs / threads where I can get smart.
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Bootloader. You mentioned that 0.7.0rc6 comes with a new boot loader and I can see it is there with the system images. However, when I follow the documentation for updating to this release, there is no mention of updating the boot loader. Am I missing something here or does installing the three system image parts also take care of the boot loader. Also, I can see the firmware release I am on in the IDE, do I also have to worry about the boot loader?
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Different techniques for updating. Particle offers a number of different approaches - Firmware manager (does not work for release candidates), Web IDE (does not update the firmware and puts device into “safe mode”), Command Line DFU. Only the last method works for me. Is there a best choice here or should stick to CLI since it can handle remote as well as local over USB?
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How do I make sense of the various releases? Correct me if I am wrong but, there is a production release at 0.6, six release candidates for 0.7 and, before a production release of 0.7 is out, there is already a release candidate of 0.8. Is there a roadmap or decision tree here which could answer some basic questions and help me decide which to use? For example, will there ever be a production release of 0.7 or will it skip to 0.8? For an Electron on a tight power budget, is 0.8 a big enough change (noticed power management in the features doc) to warrant the risk. I know there is a Firmware update thread but it has gotten very long. I realize there is also a Firmware Update comments thread but, it does not seem to be very active. I was hoping for a roadmap or guidance doc that was more net and was focused on the current release options.
Thanks again for your help and apologize if these questions are too basic.