The message about Calligra 3.x

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

Hi,
I am proposing this looking more from users' optics than from developers':

We're at 3.0 Pre-Alpha stage now.

How about then releasing 3.0 Beta 1, 2, .... and never the 3.0 _stable_.
This approach would be announced in 3.0 Beta 1 already: "3.0 is a BETA series".

Users read it as "experimental", "preview", whatever. "Beta" seems to
be the best universally understood indicator.
Just avoid the "3.0 stable" "but preview" mantra, which does not seem
to be a very safe bet (hint: Plasma 4.0).

What's with 3.1? For now I do not know. Maybe we can have 3.1 stable,
maybe not. Depends on many factors.

More active sub-projects would achieve their stable milestones by
then. Or not if they are active or/and daring.
We don't know now.

Also, possible thing is that some apps wouldn't achieve stability
milestone in the same time. So for example how 3.1 would be called?
A common denominator would be my bet, i.e. marking all apps included
as beta. Thus rather giving users a nice surprise (e.g. they would
note that Krita is ready) than than disappointing them (by the fact
that in 3.1 "Stable" some apps aren't so stable or feature-complete
compared to 2.9).

What with further 2.9.x releases during all of this? Depending on
interest/needs/resources they would exist.

If so as much of co-installability as possible is nice. It would be
great if Kexi 2.9 can be used for work and 3.0 can be installed by
users willing to help testing the betas. However I guess the
dependencies may not so co-installable (kdelibs/KF5)?

At least there are users who use more than one OS/machine anyway --
they prefer separating the environments for testing new stuff from
stable environments. In this case the duo (2.9 stable + 3.x betas)
would work OK for them.

Summing up, I am flexible, we're flexible. We hope for the best,
prepare for the worst.
To me a simple user-oriented message (also easy to translate!) is a
key. They're with us in all this.

Based on what we'll conclude, more of a roadmap can be drafted.

-- 
regards, Jaroslaw Staniek

KDE:
: A world-wide network of software engineers, artists, writers, translators
: and facilitators committed to Free Software development - http://kde.org
Calligra Suite:
: A graphic art and office suite - http://calligra.org
Kexi:
: A visual database apps builder - http://calligra.org/kexi
Qt Certified Specialist:
: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jstaniek