In response to popular demand, we have created an update to the Folding@home software that allows you to prioritize COVID-19 projects. We encourage you to upgrade as the new software includes important bug fixes and security updates. Downloads are available here. Please also join me in thanking the Center for the Science and Engineering of Living Systems (CSELS) at Washington University in St. Louis for funding the development of this software update.
Our top priority for this release was to add the COVID-19 option as quickly as possible. We also took the opportunity to fix many of the issues raised by our volunteers, but did not address those that would have caused significant delays in the release of the new software. To better address important bugs in the future, we’ve organized a team of volunteer developers who are sorting through and prioritizing our issue tracker on GitHub. They are already making huge strides.
Looking towards the future, we are also working on a new Open-Source Folding@home software. This new software will improve the performance of Folding@home and make it easier to get the community involved in its development. By tapping into the massive amount of technical talent available in the Folding@home community, we believe we can produce better software with a more engaging and productive user experience and update that software more often. More information about the availability of this new software will soon be announced on this blog.