In short, how easy is it to transfer files from 2.79b to 2.8? Can they be transfered the other way, and if so, what are the requirements/limitations? I am looking at some teaching that will involve both (many poor students unable to upgrade hardware to 2.8 reqspecs), and would like to transfer files back and forth as easily as possible.
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From what you’ve explained, wouldn’t be much simpler to only use 2.79?
I haven’t transfer so much data until now ('still using 2.79b in my pro workflow), but when I had to do, I used collada. I think modeling is easy to keep, but things like armatures & materials for example may be broken. But wait for more solid advices.
I used 2.79b for a long time and started with 2.8 when it was just about ready for the service release… Now using 2.8RC3. I have had Little to No problems just opening the 2.79 Blend File in 2.8. Transferring back to 2.79 is not possible…The interface is just too different.
I don’t have a monster machine with super graphics card…but did have 16gb memory which I upgraded to 32 recently. Will but a new GPU latter but for now have a really old Nvidia Gforce Gt 700 series.
If you use the Blender zip download you can install in any location and keep them separated as to plugins and blend files very easily!
I think that if the computer was able to run 2.79 without problems… it should run 2.8. It may be a bit slow in areas…even my rig has trouble with sculpting, but it does work.
One can only try and see…
2.8 is not backward compatible with 2.7 serie!
you can open 2.79 files in 2.8
now if you have simple things in 2.8 using same nodes then old cycles in 2.7
on Win 10 you could use copy and paste to 2.79
but don’t expect complicated things to work nicely
happy bl
just saw this tut
happy bl
So far as I am aware – and this is fairly typical for software packages – there is backward- compatibility but not forward. In other words, 2.8 will know how to accept a file built by an earlier version of Blender, but it will not create a new file in a legacy format – in any format other than its own.
I need to be ‘community compatible’, too…
No dice, sadly. They discontinued a lot of older model chipsets. My favorite laptop is one of them, but so are a lot of computers that people have bought cheap within the last few years (because they were older models on sale, for example). Sad but true 
That was my assumption, until I spotted some remark on (IIRC) Wikipedia about it being both. Sounded too good to me, too…