6 weeks delay proposition

[Lionel Dricot (aka Ploum)]

Hello,

I want to discuss about the 6 weeks delay proposed by Mark Shuttleworth :
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-March/000094.html

The second meeting to talk about this 6 weeks delay is in a few hours but I
want to write my ideas down before.

Don't forget to add "IMHO" everywhere in this text. It's just my opinion but
I sometimes forget to write it.

Time based release :
----------------------------

When people have time, they will take it. If there is no deadline, a project
will take forever or, at least, take a long time. Not because people are not
working but because they always want something more polished then break
something else, ...
The release of Debian Sarge is a perfect example.
That's why a lot of project are now using/switching to a time based release.


Ubuntu 6 months process :
------------------------------------

Ubuntu is now quite famous. The 6 months process is, IMHO, a good part of
this success : it improves the global quality, it allows people to use
stable but up-to-date softwares (nearly the bleeding edge) but, more, it's
predicable ! You can easily schedule upgrade, testing. You can also decide
to wait a few weeks before migrating a bunch of computers.

Non-techies users are already looking at screenshots and asking us : "Where
will we have them ? April ?"  or "You tell me that this annoying bug is
fixed. When will I have the fix ? April ?".

Some LUG and Ubuntu communities have also scheduled an event every 6 months.
The traditionnal install parties are becoming install/upgrade parties and
that's good.

At first glance, 6 weeks delay seems bad.


Dapper Drake Enterprise :
---------------------------------

As Mark said, Dapper Drake is very special because it's the first Enterprise
ready Ubuntu edition (with DVD collector, director's cut edition, isn't it
?). It seems good to add more polish and more testing since it will have a
longer support life.

At first glance, 6 weeks delay seems good.


Just adding a 6 week delay ?
-------------------------------------

What if we just add a 6 weeks delay ? It would be, IMHO, wrong.
1) Just adding 6 weeks will not add that much quality. A lot of contributor
will think : "Ok, so I'm cool for 6 weeks more before the rush". There will
be lot of discussion for 6 weeks more (Must we add NM with WPA support ?
With the new theme, my desktop glows in the dark ! ...)
2) It would be a big deception for a big part of the community. People that
are waiting Dapper to install it on their desktop, scheduled install
parties, ...
3) There would be no more beta-testers than usual. Only usual contributors
and testers will install and report bugs against the intermediate flight CD.
The biggest problem with the Breezy release was hardware oddities. With only
a 6 weeks delay, we will not expand the testing field.

But :
1) Dapper obviously needs more polishing/testing thant Breezy and Hoary.


What can we choose ?
-----------------------------

As usual in this kind of problem, the solution is nor black or white -
insert here random Confucius quote - but in the middle.
So I suggest the following :

- Let release Dapper as usual, without any delay. Community will be very
happy.
- Call this Dapper : "Community Edition" or something like that.
- Leave Dapper frozen for 6 weeks.
- In this timeframe, collect all the new bugs from install parties, new
users, users with strange hardware and so one.
- Choose carefully wich bugs must be really solved in Dapper.
- 6 weeks later, release : "Dapper Enterprise edition" and print CDs.

I don't know if this kind of solution is realistic or not, but it would make
nearly everyone happy, IMHO.  More, it would make a lot of people
beta-testers of the Enterprise edition.

But, in respect of the community, it seems very important to me to release
this "Community edition" as a normal release, not a beta one. It will not
warn you against installing it or possible data loss. It could be installed
on a beginner's computer. It *is* a release. The special would not be this
community edition but the enterprise one, the same release with just a
little more love.


Thank you for reading, any comment is welcome. See you at the meeting :-)


Lionel  (ploum on IRC)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/attachments/20060314/32c32668/attachment-0001.htm