the "gamma" proposal - details that need working out

[Tom Albers]

At Monday 09 July 2007 22:37, you wrote:
> On 7/6/07, Troy Unrau <troy.unrau at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The proposal is to add another layer to the release stack called 'gamma' or
> > similar.  The release cycle up until Oct 23rd would remain unchanged, except
> > perhaps the RC sections might need to be renamed as gamma candidate, for
> > instance.
> 
> Sorry for bringing up this question again, but I have the impression
> that old-style "release when ready" supporters got shut up too often
> now.

No, it's not if you read the whole thread. Problem is that this 'release when ready' works great in small open source projects. But when there are hundereds people working on one project, there is no time when everyone is 'ready' at the same time. We have set a schedule, so everyone can get ready at certain times. The schedule is not set in stone, for example we changed the name of beta1 to alfa2 when we felt we were not 'ready' for that phase.

> As a russian saying states, do not call the devil your brother... Why
> inventing names instead of shifting the schedule by 3 months?

Hehe, that would be too easy ;-)
Seriously, in that case when an additional delay happens, we can not do a release party, so we have to be finished before that. Besides, there are people counting on us to release around that time. Delaying the release for 3 months would hurt those people.

> > We will do the
> > marketing to ensure that the opensource community knows that they can use
> > the gamma while preparing a big splash for 4.0.0 three months later.
> 
> Why don't just let people more time to code to ensure 4.0.0 is good
> instead of doing marketing?

That are two different groups. They don't start to work after we finished, we can do things at the same time ;-)
 
> PS: I do know all the reasons why 4.0 has to be shipped in October already

Uhm. Enlighten me. I made the original schedule and the date was choosen quite randomly. As far as I know there is no hidden agenda. If there is, please tell me, I need to know.

Toma