Re: GNOME 3.0 Release Notes

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Paul Cutler <pcutler gnome org> wrote:
> It's that time to start working on and planning the GNOME 3.0 release notes.
>
> I've done the last couple of release notes, and with the importance of
> GNOME 3.0, I'm hoping for some help.  :)
>
> I wouldn't mind re-thinking the release notes, for a couple of
> reasons.  Some random thoughts:
>
> 1 - This is a huge release.  We haven't had a .0 release in, what, 8 or 9 years?

So much has changed, the challenge is going to be to focus on the big
picture and not get swamped by detail.

> 2 - The UI is totally different - we're going to need lots of pretty screenshots

Just wondering: what about screencasts/videos? Incorporating a video
tour of the GNOME 3 desktop might make sense...

> 3 - There are some fairly significant changes in the behavior - from
> suspend to maximizing windows to applets - we need to think about how
> we present these.

One approach would be to include some generic statements about the
wealth of smaller changes that are contained within the redesign. We
should brainstorm what we think these mean: something along the lines
of satisfaction, simplicity, beauty, streamlining, simplification, or
refinement, perhaps.

Or do you think we need to tackle these changes directly?

> 4 - The release notes are going to be dissected and read from our
> users to major publications

We need to ensure that gnome3.org, the release notes and the press
release have a complementary relationship with oneanother. They need
to give the same messages in slightly different ways.

> 5 - We need to start thinking about how we prioritize what's in the
> release notes - are the current sections we have the right ones?

I like the current split between 'for users' and 'for developers'; it
makes a lot of sense. One thing we might want to do is split the
former section into 'desktop' and 'applications', or even 'desktop',
'utilities' and 'applications'.

> I know I don't have all these answers!  But we don't have tons of time
> to brainstorm either, so we'll need to discuss and then start writing.

Is there a place where we can start putting down ideas? Perhaps we
could organise a meeting once we have some material?

> One thing I've always wanted to but never had the time was to to
> something like Mairin Duffy blogged about a long time, which is a "1
> page" version of the release notes[2] too (though it turned out to be
> 3 pages!)  I think we could have our more detailed, formal release
> notes and this.  (See link).

That's an excellent idea, and it shouldn't be too difficult. Let's
look into it once we have some copy to work with.

> Some facts about the release notes:
>
> 1 - They are written in Docbook in the release-notes module in Git[3]
> - You don't need to know Git or Docbook - I'm happy to get copy in to
> Docbook and commit - Just need to write!
> 2 - The development calendar is on live.gnome.org[4] (We're a bit
> behind - according to that we should have started Feb 7th!)
> 3 - fredp will help with getting them on library.gnome.org for review
> and I can password protect it once they're up
> 4 - You can see the release notes for 2.32 here to get a feel for how
> they've been done in the past [5]
>
> Paul
>
> [1] http://live.gnome.org/ReleaseNotes
> [2] http://mairin.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/fedora-12-one-page-release-notes-pdf/
> [3] http://git.gnome.org/browse/release-notes/
> [4] http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointNinetyone
> [5] http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.32/

Best,

Allan