[V3.0] KDE4.0 Release Roadmap

[Allen Winter]

Howdy,

After reading the feedback, may I present v3.0 of the "KDE 4.0 Release Roadmap"
(notice I removed the extra ".0")  Also notice that we now correctly compute
the release date as 23 October, given an estimated 3 betas and 2 RCs.

Unless there are major objections, Tom and I would like to move this discussion
over to the kde-core-devel mailing list in a day or two.   Where we know
this plan will take a good beating.

Regards,
Allen
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Hereby we present a draft roadmap as has been discussed on the
release-team mailinglist. It's an optimistic schedule which aims
to release in early October, based on 3 Beta's and 2 release candidates.


We tried to make a schedule that pleases as many people as possible, but you
will understand that everyone has their own favorite agenda. So when commenting
on the schedule you will need to think about who will benefit from the change
and who will have trouble with it. Your personal interest might not be the one
of the group. 


We want to release KDE 4.0 before Qt5 will be released. KDE 4.0 will not
contain all features announced, they will come during the lifetime of KDE 4.
We can probably switch quickly to a KDE 4.1 release if there are major
subsystems ready for merging soon after the KDE 4.0 release. Also remember
that we have been porting for a couple years and we need to get this show
on the road.

We want to release soon and release often.

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DRAFT KDE 4.0 Roadmap, v3.0
===========================

Milestone: Subsystem Freeze
Date: 1 April 2007
Goals:
 * From this date forward, no major KDE subsystem can be committed to kdelibs.
 * The location of all classes are fixed within kdelibs
 * Trunk is expected to contain KDE4 code only now. This effectively means
   that all scripts processing translations for KDE3 in trunk will cease.
 * Extragear applications that want to release based on KDE3 are expected
   to move to /branches/stable and work from there.
 * The buildsystem requirements are fixed; i.e, must not require a
   version of cmake greater than 2.4.5.

Milestone: Alpha Release + kdelibs soft API Freeze
Date: 1 May 2007
Goals:
 * Qt 4.3 is required from here until release.
 * The kdelibs API is frozen. This means that the classes and interfaces are
   not allowed to change, except with permission of the core developers.
 * To make an API change, post a kdelibs API exception request to the
   kde-core-devel mailinglist with an explanation and the code. If there
   are no objections after a week, the change can be committed.
   NOTE: all affected modules must continue to compile and work as expected.


Milestone: Feature Freeze
Date: 1 June 2007
Goals:
 * The KDE main modules are frozen for new features.
 * No new features are allowed, the focus is on stabilizing the applications
   and fixing all bugs.
 * The main module maintainers must indicate if they will follow the release
   schedule or will divert and not be released together with KDE 4.0.


Milestone: Beta Cycle, Full kdelibs API Freeze
Start: 25 June 2007  End: 24 September 2007  Duration: 3 months (estimated)
Goals:
 * From this date forward, a Beta Version will be published every month
   until most grave bugs are resolved.
 * The kdelibs API is now frozen solid.
 * Translations are included starting with the second Beta, thus beginning
   a string freeze. Exceptions can be requested on the kde-i18n mailinglist.


Milestone: Release Candidate Cycle
Start: 25 September 2007  End: 9 October 2007  Duration: 2 weeks (estimated)
Goals:
 * From this date forward, a Release Candidate will be released every
   two weeks until *all* grave bugs are resolved.
 * After the first Release Candidate there is a total release freeze.
   This means only regressions (breakage caused due to the KDE4 port)
   or grave bugs can be fixed, but nothing else.
 * With the first Release Candidate, a list of languages which will be
   included with the KDE 4.0 release will be made available, based on the
   usual rules.


Milestone: KDE 4.0 Released
Date: 23 October 2007
Goals:
 * This date is based on an estimated 3 Beta's and 2 Release Candidates.