UI Freeze in place, Alpha 6 freeze ahead

[Steve Langasek]

Hello Ubuntu developers,

As of today, we are officially under the User Interface Freeze for Intrepid:

   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserInterfaceFreeze

In order to help ensure our documentation is accurate for the release,
please notify the documentation team of any further changes to artwork, text
strings, or UI designs that will be made between now and the release, and
please make such changes only where necessary.


Our sixth and final alpha testing milestone for Intrepid, Intrepid Alpha 6,
is scheduled for next Thursday, September 18.  Intrepid Alpha 6 will again
use a "soft freeze" for main[1].  This means that developers are asked to
refrain from uploading packages between Tuesday and Thursday which don't
bring us closer to releasing the alpha, so that these days can be used for
settling the archive and fixing any remaining showstoppers.

The list of bugs targeted for alpha-6 can be found at:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=1324

Per a previous announcement on this list[2] and the policy at
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RCBugTargetting>, this list is used for tracking
bugs that are blockers for the alpha 6 milestone.  If you know of other bugs
that should be considered blockers, please nominate them for release and set
the milestone target for those bugs.  If you have questions about whether a
bug should be considered a blocker, please contact a member of the release
team[3].

And of course, please also consider helping with the bugs already listed
there if you have the time.

At this point in the release cycle, it's increasingly important to look not
just at the bugs that are critical for the current milestone, but also those
which are critical for the upcoming intrepid milestones or critical for the
release as a whole:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=1325
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+bugs?field.milestone%3Alist=1326
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+bugs

Please use your best judgement with regard to the alpha freeze when
uploading fixes for these bugs; but if you don't have any bugs milestoned
for alpha 6 that need your attention, it's definitely not too early to look
ahead to the next milestones.

Please also help us to get the archive in a consistent state again for the
alpha, as described on
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PackageArchive#Consistency>.

Finally, if you know of new features in Intrepid that you think should be
highlighted for Alpha 6, let me or another member of the release team know
so that they can be added to the technical overview at
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidIbex/TechnicalOverview>.

Thanks,
--
Steve Langasek
On behalf of the Ubuntu release team
 
[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-January/000363.html
[2] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-June/000442.html
[3] https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/+members