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

[Andreas Hartmetz]

Am Donnerstag, 25. Oktober 2007 18:06:35 schrieb 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?

I think that everybody who listened to the hype will also listen when tell 
them that 4.0 is expected to be somewhat buggy. The hype never included 
anything about bugs, so it's not even like we'd have to revoke previous 
statements. As long as the worst problems get fixed quickly some users may 
even find it interesting to see what software that isn't 100% finished looks 
like and watch the improvements :)