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

[Cristian Tibirna]

Le jeudi, 25 octobre 2007 11:36, Aaron J. Seigo a écrit :
> 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.

I can see your standing, but I think we so much spoke of KDE4 (notice the 
notation) and how wonderful will be, that people _are indeed_ expecting that 
KDE 4.0 (notice the notation) be installable on production systems.

>
> 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".

Then we should probably call it (not symbolically but conceptually) "almost 
4.0" (as 3.9 seem to scare developers and testers away...)

> 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.

Perfectly agreeing.

> 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.

We shouldn't forget the raised expectations we created in the userbase with 
the record of the last 11 years. _That_'s more problematic. As a project with 
frequent releases but with no (or too little) users is as good as a project 
with no releases at all.

> if you are concerned about what the public perception is, first step is to
> stop being worried yourself. 

That's a great thing to express, with which I agree completely. Do we try it 
with 4.0? This seems to be the current right now (and I'm not opposed to 
it -- how could I (*me* wonders glancing at my (lack of) svn commits) --, I 
am just ambivalent).

> 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.

I agree with 90% of what you state. Great mobilizing speech. Problem is, we're 
rather deeply caught in the hype machine. Is there somebody still able to 
reach the red button?

-- 
Cristian Tibirna
KDE developer .. tibirna at kde.org .. http://www.kde.org
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-core-devel/attachments/20071025/9cfd4a21/attachment.sig>