Re: What are the community's goals for 2.0? [was Re: Getting serious about releasing]

[louie peabody ximian com]

On Wed, Apr 24, 2002 at 01:10:03AM -0400, Luis Villa wrote:
> However, I have yet to hear anyone explain why (2) is a good idea
> either. So, here are my reasons why I feel (2) (havoc's (c), but in
> July) /is/ a good idea.
> 
> 	*There is a big fear that if we go for (2), we'll slip 	interminably;
> Havoc's estimate is September. This is quite 
> 	simply not the case. This is unusual, but Sun's contract with
> 	Ximian/Wipro guarantees that (2) is achieved (for all intents and
> 	purposes) is no later than mid-July. So slipping until September 	will
> not occur. Ximian, Wipro, and Sun will ensure that slippage 	is no later
> than July. Yes, there will be puntage- we obviously 	can't fix
> everything. But there will be a lot less puntage than 	Havoc has
> proposed.
> 
> 	*If we go for (2), quite bluntly, we get a release we'll be 	proud to
> put our names on. Option (1) (release Real Soon Now) I'd be 	embarassed
> to show to my mother, because she's 	never used Linux and 	she'd find
> bugs in 2-3 minutes. I shudder to think of the press and 	community
> reaction we'd get. I was fucking proud of Evolution 1.0, 	and that was
> because we waited until we got it right. I can't 	/wait/ to get my mom
> using it eventually. That is not going to be the 	case with a 2.0
> release that punts that many bugs.

1) Eck. Apologies for the horrible formatting. Should have trusted evo
to do it instead of doing it myself ;)

2) I forgot one item in this list: I know there is a sense of burnout
among some people in the community, but what I'm seeing in the numbers
and on the lists is increased interest in 2.0 and increased rates of
bug-fixing. Hell, even nautilus is getting random people spontaneously
picking bugs and fixing them :) If we really are building momentum, it
seems like we should be capitalizing on that and standing firm on our
quality goals, not giving in and cutting things just as (from where I
stand) things are getting good from an involvement perspective. I for
one find it exciting to be involved in something moving rapidly
towards kicking much ass and I think other people are beginning to
feel that way too. Compromising on quality seems to me like a very
quick way to damage that excitement and momentum.

Luis (again, speaking for myself as a contributor and user, not for
Ximian, Sun, or the release team)