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

[Sri Ramkrishna <sri aracnet com>]

> Would it satisfy the "release it now" lobby if we start naming the beta
> releases "Release Candidate", and API-freeze all included libraries? We
> can then:
>
> a) get some press attention now (and again later when we decide to call
>    it "ready" :) );
> b) avoid the negative aspects of releasing with hundreds of known bugs,
>    some serious, some easily fixed.  _I_ know it's going to be called a
>    developer release, but I doubt anyone installing it will think it is
>    anything less than an upgrade to 1.4; and
> c) start encouraging third parties to port/develop GNOME 2 applications
>    while we're doing the final polishing.
>
>
> Please lets not repeat the 1.0 release.

Yes, we'll never get over the stigma.  As a beta tester myself GNOME2.0
currently while very fast and impressive visually is not a fully
functionally desktop.

I would say that we can judge the state of gnome2  by looking at the
number of unique bug reports that are filed per week.  If there is a
excessively high number then we're in bad shape.  (I'm not coding so I
don't know what would count as excessive, individual maintainers would
have to decide that)  We need to reflect and decide what works
as a minimal functioning GNOME2.0 system.  For instance, I would
throw out the menu editing stuff since it's currently broken as not
necessary as part of the user experience.

Once we have a core set of features that people want, release it as
a developer's only release 1.9999.  Use long release numbers it sticks
in people's heads better than "Developer Release".  I know it bugs
the hell out of me when I see it.

If we have a relatively small number of bugs coming then we're seeing
the same stuff and I would put move people around to tackle the bugs.

As for burn out, I think developers need to see a release soon in order to
at least get some sort of feedback.  Long hours of toiling and then not
seeing anything gets tiring.  So lets at least make some sort of 1.9999
release with some of the features disabled and then continue forward.

However, don't make a 2.0 until either you are completely stable and you
have at least feature comparisant with 1.4.  People don't want to upgrade
and then not have all the same features they expect in 1.4.  I know I
would be annoyed as a end user especially if I depend on them.

sri