Release Strategy Proposal

Sebastian Kügler sebas at kde.org
Fri Apr 26 13:27:40 UTC 2013


Hi,

<tldr>
Let's make 4.11 the last feature release for platform and workspace in the 4 
series, make 4.11 a long term maintainance release.
</tldr>

I would like to propose the following for our release planning in the next 
year:

- Make 4.11 Platform and Workspaces a long-term maintainance release with 
  bugfix updates for two years

- After 4.11.0, shift feature development to Frameworks 5 and Plasma 
  Workspaces 2, in order to not delay this forever

- Applications are not part of this proposal, we'd need feedback from App 
  module maintainers. It doesn't need to be decided along with this proposal 
  though. For now, App developers should be encouraged to make releases on top 
  of 4.x, and jump onto KF5 "when it's ready"

Reasons:
* This strategy will cement our leading role as desktop environment
* It eases transition to KF5/PW2 by giving ample room to keep the old version
* It communicates that we do not abandon SC4, but actively support it
* It makes downstreams happy, particularly those with long term releases as 
  they will have a version with multiple years of bug fixes to focus on
* kdelibs 4.x is already feature frozen, we plan to do the same for Plasma 
  after 4.11 and concentrate on PW2 then

How this will look like exactly:

4.11 gets out as normal, but with the clear message: This is going to 
maintained for a longer period of 2 years: If you're doing an Enterprise 
distro, this one is the one you want


Of course, this being a proposal, its main purpose is to sollicit feedback, 
but I'd also move towards a solution, as far as this describes common ground 
among all stakeholders.


What do you think?
-- 
sebas

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