KDE4 release discussion, Was: KIO::NetAccess static methods question
Aaron J. Seigo
aseigo at kde.org
Thu Oct 25 16:36:43 BST 2007
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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