[RFC] KDE 4.0 Release Roadmap

[Allen Winter]

Howdy,

Hereby we, the Release Team, present a draft KDE 4.0 Release roadmap which has
been discussed on our mailinglist the past few weeks. It's an optimistic schedule
that aims to release in late 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. 

KDE 4.0 will not contain all features announced nor promised: these 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 hits the streets. Also remember that we have been porting for
a couple years and we need to get this show on the road.

Release soon and release often.

Discuss.
Allen, KDEPIM Release Dude

PS: there still remains a great need for people to volunteer as release
coordinators for several of our modules.  The current coordinators list,
along with other KDE 4 Release info can be found at
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KDE4ReleaseInfo

It would be great if we had at least a point of contact per KDE module.

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KDE 4.0 Roadmap
===============

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: 22 October 2007  Duration: 4 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.