1. Yes, when we see beta work units. But more than likely the project won't be identified until beta testing is over.

2. Maybe if there are beta WUs.

probably not - as there's plenty of 'Beta testers', and thus, the few Beta WU's that get distributed, soon get snapped up.

Of course, that doesn't say that not opting in won't help - as you may have a particular configuration/set-up that few have, and thus, your machines could be 'the key' as to whether a project launches quicker than it would have otherwise have done.

Thus, feel free to join up and help out 'when' some Beta WU's are released.

Probably best is to move a few computers for a month to climateprediction.net and then you will learn more than any question answered here can teach you.

The tasks can be really long. I have a UK Met Office HadCM3 short task on my 2670 v1 that will take over 9 days. Some are shorter, some longer. There is a number in the task name indicating the # of months which will correlate to the run time.

Often do not have work. There is none now. I've only received that one resend task on that PC in many weeks.

They use trickle messages. So every 10% or something partial work will upload and you can get credit for that part even if the task ends up failing in the end.

Some apps are only available for certain OSs. Calculations end up different between OSs so some apps are Windows only or Linux only.

I think credit is updated still just once a week. Last update was nearly a month ago per Free-DC.

CPDN is not a project that should be a main focus. Crunch work when you can get it but its far from a project like WCG that is the standard for reliable work.