dogfood

n. [Microsoft, Netscape] Interim software used internally for testing. To
eat one's own dogfood (from which the slang noun derives) means to use the
software one is developing, as part of one's everyday development
environment (the phrase is used outside Microsoft and Netscape). The
practice is normal in the Linux community and elsewhere, but the term
dogfood is seldom used as open-source betas tend to be quite tasty and
nourishing. The idea is that developers who are using their own software
will quickly learn what's missing or broken. Dogfood is typically not even
of beta quality.

