Re: New suites vs. common release cycle [Was: Productivity suite]

[Mark McLoughlin <markmc redhat com>]

On Sun, 2005-06-12 at 13:06 +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote:

>  * We currently have three release suites, with differing requirements, for
>    three separate, fairly well-defined purposes. They have served us well in
>    terms of understanding and expressing GNOME as a coherent product, and as
>    a method of simplifying the release management process.
>    
>  * Unfortunately, our three release suites are viciously exclusive, socially
>    and technically. If your software doesn't fit for whatever reason, you're
>    out in the cold, and there is a *lot* of fantastic software for GNOME out
>    there (note: for GNOME, not necessarily using GNOME). We need to include
>    all of those hackers and contributors, and let them "be GNOME" too!

	At its core, I think Iain's "GNOME Nirvana" mail[1] had an interesting
idea. That is that we'd have a much slimmer Desktop release set and a
very inclusive way of defining "what is GNOME" for eveything above that
set - apps would be rated on how GNOME-like they are on various vectors
like appearance/usability, whether its in GNOME CVS, whether its on the
GNOME release schedule etc. etc.

Cheers,
Mark.

[1] - Coincidently, that was two years ago today:

  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-June/msg00382.html