Re: GNOME 2.20 release notes

["Quim Gil" <qgil gnome org>]

On 8/3/07, Ken VanDine <ken vandine org> wrote:
> I would view 2.19.x as something for the enthusiast/power user/version
> chaser, but 2.20 will be a stable release.  Therefore suitable for the
> masses, not bleeding edge.

Erm, sorry. 2.19 is something just an elite of GNOME hackers and other
developers working on bleeding edge distros are tasting and testing
(directly or through the development versions of the small group of
distros caring about building GNOME before it's released.

The 2.20 release notes will be suitable for the masses...

... that understand what a desktop is and understand that GNOME is a
desktop, but i.e. Beryl has nothing to do with GNOME.

... that understand that Abiword and Epiphany are GNOME but not
Firefox or OpenOffice(.org).

... that understand that Inkscape, Gaim and even GIMP are not GNOME either.

... that understand that they can't download and install GNOME, and
the release we announce today include a bunch of features they won't
enjoy till later (in some cases really a lot later) though their
selected distro.

... that understand that the list of features we are listing are worth
a release.

The masses, even the masses of free software users, are used mostly to
releases of new products or heavy revamps. Only the fact of explaining
why 2.20 is something good for them is difficult. To me the users that
understand the previous points are power users with a very good grasp
of what GNOME is. This corresponds to a minority of users, not the
average profile.

Comparing minorities, I personally prefer to write release notes that
will satisfy first the developers and the minority of people that fit
in the profiles detailed before. If developers like the release notes
power users will love them as well.

But this is just an opinion of someone that won't take part in the
writing of the release notes.  :)  As soon as you try to keep
everything in a single, very visual page I'm pretty sure the rest will
be fine/great.


-- 
Quim Gil /// http://desdeamericaconamor.org