Queries about release specifications [Was: who gets in and why]

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Mark McLoughlin">

> 	Call me stupid, but I'm still confused ...
> 
> 	It sounds like somewhere along the way it has decided that
> 'hackers using the GEP process' governs which new libraries are
> considered a core part of GNOME and the release team decides which new
> applications get included ... or do I misunderstand what the
> difference between "Desktop" and "Developer Platform" is ?

The difference between them doesn't involve the GEP process, I don't know
how that comes into it. :-) See my reply to Michael with quick definitions
of what the Desktop and Developer Platform releases are.

> 	So .. if I'm not mistaken, why was it decided the release team
> would be the sole arbitrators and that the GEP process is of no use ?

To begin with, nothing like this was ever decided.

During the 2.0 process, we had no GEP process, so the release team made most
of the calls as to what would be in the DP and Desktop releases. We did this
ourselves because that was our task as described by the Foundation Board, we
had to wrangle the entire process and get it back on track, and we had to be
expedient about quality/timeliness issues.

Remember that the release team doesn't declare or decide, it suggests [1].
So in the case of 2.2, we have suggested a number of benchmarks for
inclusion in the Desktop release, and a few appropriate applications along
those lines. Casual consensus and code will bake those suggestions into what
we're actually going to do.

When it comes to the Developer Platform, I'd strongly suggest that we use
the GEP process to decide additions and removals, as that is one of the
reasons why we have it. I'm sure the release team agrees with that 100%.

The pertinent point here is that the current discussion reflects choices for
the *Desktop* side of things -> there will most likely be very little change
in the Developer Platform components for 2.2 (unless libgnomeprint is ready).

So, do you think we should be using the GEP process to decide upon the
Desktop release components too?

- Jeff

[1] Until we get to the tail end of the process, when we have to start
putting our collective feet down. Everyone has been happy with this so far,
as it allowed us to actually get GNOME 2 out.

-- 
  "GIMP is the primary tool in my graphics work. It is my gcc and Emacs."   
                             - Tuomas Kuosmanen