Settling on Final Freeze Date for Natty

[Kate Stewart]

On Tue, 2011-03-22 at 01:03 -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> As I understand it, the proposed sequence is:
> 
> Beta 1 7 days hard freeze
> Open 10 days
> Beta 2 4 days hard freeze
> Open 4 days
> Release 7 days (of which 4 are holiday/weekend)
> 
> I think unfreezing the archive between the Beta 2 freeze and the Release 
> Freeze is risky, particularly with the short (working days) period between the 
> release freeze and the release date.  Each freeze period gets shorter as we 
> iterate and I think that's the wrong direction for a smooth release.
> 
> My recommendation would be to adjust this slightly:
> 
> Defer Beta 1 freeze to Monday 28 March, Freeze for Beta 2 on Monday 11 April, 
> and don't thaw the archive between Beta 2 and Final.  That last point will 
> make it possible for the release team to know what's changing between Beta 2 
> and Final.  That would look like:
> 
> +3 Development days before Beta 1 freeze
> Beta 1 4 Days hard freeze
> Open 10 Days
> Beta 2 4 Days hard freeze
> Final Freeze 14 Days
> 
> That gives about the same number of archive open days and should make it easy 
> to get a softer landing jumping from Beta 2 to Final (minimize the risk of 
> having to drag people to work on a holiday and mitigate the risk of unexpected 
> changes cause problmes between Beta 2 and Final).
> 
> Scott K

Thanks for the good suggestions Scott.

Based on discussion on IRC channels as well as your note, the schedule
for next month will be:

Beta 1 freeze - was left as is on 3/24 - hard freeze (we ne
Beta 1 release - 3/31
Archive open for final bug fixes and FFEs
Beta 2 freeze - 4/11 (at UTC 09:00 ) - hard freeze
Beta 2 release - 4/14
Final Freeze 14 days
Natty release 4/28
Oneiric opens for development 4/29 

If anyone sees any reasons why this won't work, please add to the thread
- otherwise will be using this schedule.

Thanks,  Kate