After the beta stage of software development comes the release candidates (abbreviated RC). There can be one or more of these candidates, and they are normally called RC 1, RC 2, RC 3, etc. The release candidate is very close to what will actually go out as a feature complete 'release'.
The final stage is a 'release'. The release is the real program that you buy in a shop or download. Because of the complexity in writing PC software, it is likely that bugs will still find their way into the final release. For this reason, software companies will offer patches to fix any major problems that end users complain loudly about.
Applications are distributed in many ways today. In the past most software has been bought in stores in versions called retail boxes. More and more, software is being distributed over the Internet, as open source, shareware, freeware, or traditional proprietary and upgradeversions.