Thanks!

Every time SF does an upgrade, the question arises about whether you're supposed to uninstall the old version first, or else install over/alongside it.

It would obviously make sense to put information about this in the release notes, because a string of messages gets generated in the forums every time, asking the same question... but for some reason SF never sees fit to explain it in the release notes.

Actually, every message on the Betas that I've ever seen from SOFO (and everyone else' betas) is pretty clear that a BETA should ALWAYS be uninstalled prior to installing the new one. The whole point of a BETA is that there are driver updates, code changes, page changes, etc, and it's important that the old files don't conflict with the new ones. This is why some companies don't open their products up to the general public for Beta testing, because invariably there are folks who don't understand the beta process, treating the app as though it's a final release. When things go awry, and they often do with anybody's beta, non-experienced users blame the company for 'blowing up their computer.' It's a beta. There are simply some things that all users of beta software should know, aside from reading the warnings, known bug issues, known 'non-working/yet to be resolved' tools, filters, plugins, etc. In the case of one product I was beta testing several months ago, they were writing for XP, which wasn't released yet, so some features were temporarily disabled until more of XP's code was completed by Microsoft. One of these 'disabled' features nailed my registry pretty hard. With a boot partition on a separate drive, I was up and running again in 5-6 minutes. But I beta test for a lot of companies, and know that this is common among beta users. Always be prepared for the worst. It's beta ware, not gold ware.
Don't pick on SOFO if they didn't scream with 100pt headlines that you should uninstall, backup, protect, and prepare for a problem. That's the nature of the Beta game. Be glad that SOFO is one of the few companies around who care enough about their users to offer public betas. And be glad that you aren't on the non-public beta team, if uninstalling the beta, etc bothers you. Cuz' I can think of several builds in the non-public environment that had severe problems, causing loads of headaches. Ones that only experienced beta testers have to deal with.
ROCK ON SOFO!