Ubuntu Docteam problems post string freeze

[Robert Stoffers]

Hi,

There have been several bugs filed lately, some duplicates, for several
known issues with our documentation. Mostly it has been a problem that
is caused by the fact we are writing about software that is still having
changes made to it. One other noticeable problem was with the name of
the next release of Ubuntu, Dapper Duck, in that we didn't know what it
was going to be called until after string freeze. I did lots of chasing
up on both the wiki and on IRC to try and find out what was happening,
in the end had to just leave the FAQ Guide as is to avoid breaking
peoples systems.

My solution to this problem is simple: ubuntu-docs shouldn't be included
in the initial release of each new version of Ubuntu, but instead pushed
out as an update after release. This would allow us to make our string
freeze after the release of Ubuntu and would ensure that our
documentation matches up with the software that is provided. This would
give translators more time and we would also free up a bit of space on
the installation CD as well.

Now I know many of you would be thinking at this point "but not having
documentation on release is a bad thing", but the fact is having
incorrect documentation is even worse then having none. As it is there
are several things in the FAQ Guide that need correcting already and I
cannot do it, which just leads to frustration and one of the main
reasons that we only have two or three contributing authors at the
moment. We could also counter this by having help.u.c working with
work-in-progress documentation that has been checked over first.

Regards,

-- 
Robert Stoffers
Author/Maintainer - Ubuntu FAQ Guide
Email - rstoffers at gmail.com