release cadence for Q and R

[Scott Kitterman]

On Tuesday, June 14, 2011 01:57:11 AM Allison Randal wrote:
> At UDS-O, we talked about balancing the 6-month cycle from the current
> 24/28 split towards a more even split. The general consensus was to keep
> the long 28 week cycle for P, since it's an LTS, but discuss more for Q
> and R.
> 
> For context, I did a little walk down memory lane:
> 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AllisonRandal/ReleaseCadence
> 
> Turns out, we've only had an actual 26 week cycle twice in the history
> of Ubuntu (Gutsy and Lucid), and never back-to-back. The longest cycle
> ever was 33 weeks (Dapper), immediately followed by the shortest cycle
> ever at 21 weeks (Edgy). The most common cycle length was 27 weeks
> (Breezy, Hardy, Intrepid, Karmic). Maverick was 24 weeks, Natty 28, and
> Oneiric and P follow the same 24/28 split.
> 
> In the current draft schedules for Q and R we continue the 24/28 split:
> 
> Q: October 11, 2012 (24 weeks)
> R: April 25, 2013 (28 weeks)
> 
> The concern raised at UDS is that 24 week cycles are difficult for
> upstreams working to synchronize their cadence with ours. The simplest
> proposal is to bump Q one week later, and R one week earlier for:
> 
> Q: October 18, 2012 (25 weeks)
> R: April 18, 2013 (26 weeks)
> 
> And after that follow a more-or-less 26/26 split (barring interference
> by international holidays, etc). Would this change be helpful or harmful
> for you? If so, could you share a bit about how? Is the change adequate
> to address the needs of upstreams?
> 
> To help our wonderful UDS planners (who need to know when to book UDS
> space for us), I'll summarize the thread for this Friday's release
> meeting, and we can discuss any remaining questions there.
> 
> Thanks all,
> Allison

For Kubuntu, when we've been able to release at the end of the month we've 
been able to release with KDE 4.X.2.  For Maverick we had to release with 
4.5.1.  This required significant effort on the part of Kubuntu developers to 
review all the upstream branches and cherrypick a number of important patches.

I think that a roughly balanced schedule (nominally 26/26) is the best one for 
giving other projects that want to align to Ubuntu releases a reliable target 
to aim for.

I like the idea of keeping a steady cadence.  My preference would be slightly 
different, to go straight to 26 weeks:

Q: October 25, 2012 (26 weeks)
R: April 25, 2013 (26 weeks)

This would align pretty well with what I expect will be the most likely 
upstream release plan for KDE.

Scott K