KDE4 release discussion, Was: KIO::NetAccess static methods question

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Thursday 25 October 2007, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> because not releasing doesn't make an open source software better. it just

it occurred to me while reading this that maybe there's a difference in 
expectations here.

personaly, i do not expect kde 4.0 to be a release that comes preinstalled on 
computer systems or a release that one would put out into production 
deployments.

this is not because of a failure of KDE 4.0 or anything like that. 4.0 should 
simply not be that kind of release at all. period. it should be something 
that lets us get that working draft out into the hands of people who are 
closest to us, but not us. emphasis on "working" but also on "draft".

the only way it could be a "ready for the enterprise" release is if 4.0 was 
very modest in its goals (it isn't) or if we held it back until it was "done" 
(which really wouldn't do us much good, either, though).

if this were a proprietary product we'd have the mandate to release this 
version to our pilot projects and 4.1 to the world with 4.2 being the 
first "service pack" or "hotfix" or "patchlevel" or whatever terminology was 
decided to be used.

but we're an open source project; such project live by (or die by not) 
releasing early and often. the pace is more important than anything.

we seem to have gotten so full of ourselves and so scared of releasing 
something that isn't "ready for the enterprise" that we seem to have 
forgotten that process.

remember the days when free software projects would release at 0.01 and slowly 
reach 0.9 and then one day after years of use by tons of people would 
announce a 1.0? didn't k3b do that recently, in fact? granted things have 
changed since then, but the pendulum has swung too far in the other 
direction, imho.

somewhere along the way a lot of us seem to have forgotten the mechanics of 
how these things work. the linux kernel project "gets it": their dot-oh 
releases are nearly always insanely bad and get pushed out almost purely 
because they need to start the process of public consumption. and you may 
have noticed, that the linux kernel project is slightly more "ready for the 
enterprise" than we ever have been. yet we seem to think they can get away 
with it and we can't.

if you are concerned about what the public perception is, first step is to 
stop being worried yourself. people take their cues from you. second, let the 
marketing and communications team do their job. that may also include asking 
them for input and/or direction when doing public presentations or tech show 
booths if you're uncertain how to present it. but public perception is 
managable, and shouldn't come into play when trying to figure out when to 
release Four Dot Oh.

that is a technical decision, and one that needs to be made in light of this 
being an open source project.

now, if my expectations were that 4.0 must be like Leopard or Vista, a 
finished completed product that Dell should be bundling on the latest laptops 
and pushing out next quarter, i'd be freaked out too. is that where some of 
these concerns are coming from? if so, please lean back in your chair a bit, 
breath, and think about how the *open source software* cycle works in 
contrast to the proprietary one.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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