proposed schedule for 2.8.x and 2.10.0

[Mark McLoughlin <markmc redhat com>]

Hi,
	Below is the previous schedule[1] moved forward by 6 months and the
version numbers incremented. Nothing more than that. Its intended as a
discussion starting point. Please do tell us how you felt about the
previous schedule and any ideas you have for doing better.

	Some points to note and changes I'd suggest:

  + 2.8.1 is at the same time as the Boston summit. Not sure
    that's an issue, though.

  + 2.9.3 is very close to Christmas. Move it ?

  + I'd really like us to actually do 2.8.3 this time around. We dropped
    it from the schedule last time around for some reason. Unless we 
    have a clear schedule for the stable releases, maintainers just 
    gradually stop committing fixes to the stable branch when they see 
    no more releases scheduled. That's a real shame and just creates 
    confusion all around. Lets say we're going to do 2.8.3, actually do 
    it and then say "we're finished with the stable branch now".

  + I'd be tempted to make the release candidate the week before
    the actual release and push the other releases down a week too. This
    time I felt the two week hard code freeze was a real drag on 
    everyone and didn't really gain us a lot.

  + Number of weeks development between each release:

      2.8.x Series     |  2.9.x/2.10.0 Series
     ------------------+--------------------
      2.8.1: 4  weeks  |  2.9.1:   7 weeks
      2.8.2: 8  weeks  |  2.9.2:   4 weeks
      2.8.3: 10 weeks  |  2.9.3:   3 weeks
                       |  2.9.4:   3 weeks
                       |  Beta 1:  2 weeks
                       |  Beta 2:  2 weeks
                       |  RC1:     2 weeks
                       |  2.10.0:  2 weeks

  + Number of weeks between each freeze compared with other development
    cycles - the numbers in parenthesis are the hard freeze dates where
    there are slushy freezes.

                       | 2.9.x    | 2.7.x    | 2.5.x    | 2.3.x
-----------------------+----------+----------+----------+--------
API/ABI FREEZE         | 14 (17)  | 14 (17)  | 13       | 18
FEATURE/MODULE FREEZE  | 17       | 17       | 18       | 18
UI FREEZE              | 17 (19)  | 17 (19)  | 18 (22)  | 26 (22)
STRING FREEZE          | 17 (21)  | 17 (21)  | 18 (22)  | 26
CODE FREEZE            | 23       | 23       | 26       | 29
FINAL RELEASE          | 25       | 25       | 28       | 31

   + Proposed calendar:

         September 2004
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
                1  2  3  4
       5  6  7  8  9 10 11
      12(13)14(15)16 17 18   RELEASE: GNOME 2.8.0
  1   19 20 21 22 23 24 25
  2   26 27 28 29 30
      
          October 2004
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
                      1  2
  3    3  4  5  6  7  8  9
  4   10(11)12(13)14 15 16   RELEASE: GNOME 2.8.1
  5   17 18 19 20 21 22 23
  6   24 25 26 27 28 29 30
      31
          November 2004
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
  7      (1) 2 (3) 4  5  6   RELEASE: GNOME 2.9.1
  8    7  8  9 10 11 12 13
  9   14 15 16 17 18 19 20
 10   21 22 23 24 25 26 27
 11   28(29)30               RELEASE: GNOME 2.9.2
      
          December 2004
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
               (1)  2  3  4
 12    5 (6) 7 (8) 9 10 11   RELEASE: GNOME 2.8.2
 13   12 13 14 15 16 17 18
 14   19(20)21(22)23 24 25   RELEASE: GNOME 2.9.3 [SLUSHY API and ABI FREEZE]
 15   26 27 28 29 30 31
      
          January 2005
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
                         1
 16    2  3  4  5  6  7  8   
 17    9(10)11(12)13 14 15   RELEASE: GNOME 2.9.4 [HARD FEATURE, MODULE, API and ABI FREEZE]
 18   16 17 18 19 20 21 22                        [SLUSHY UI AND STRING FREEZE]
 19   23(24)25(26)27 28 29   RELEASE: GNOME 2.10.0 Beta 1 [HARD UI FREEZE]
 20   30 31
          February 2005
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
             1  2  3  4  5
 21    6 (7) 8 (9)10 11 12   RELEASE: GNOME 2.10.0 Beta 2 [HARD STRING FREEZE]
 22   13 14 15 16 17 18 19   RELEASE: GNOME 2.8.3 Desktop & Developer Platform
 23   20(21)22(23)24 25 26   RELEASE: GNOME 2.10.0 Release Candidate 1 [HARD CODE FREEZE]
 24   27 28
      
           March 2005
 Wk   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 
             1  2  3  4  5
 25    6 (7) 8 (9)10 11 12  RELEASE: GNOME 2.10.0 Desktop & Developer Platform
 26   13 14 15 16 17 18 19
      20 21 22 23 24 25 26
      27 28 29 30 31


Cheers,
Mark.

[1] - http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-March/msg00315.html