Re-evaluating Ubuntu's Milestones

[Simon Quigley]

Hello Oliver,

On 2018-04-09 03:30, Oliver Grawert wrote:
> well, apart from actual installer fixes, your users should get all
> these fixes through package updates anyway ... 

Right, which is another point for getting rid of these extra milestones, 
in my opinion.

> One thing that the other pro/con responses did not cover yet but that
> should not be underestimated is the promotional aspect of milestones
> ...  
> 
> You typically get press coverage for such pre-releases and will likely
> attract more testers.

Not really, actually. In my experience, testers are present when there 
is an occasion to test them, regardless of putting a name to it or 
releasing an ISO. I could see your point if my proposal was to get rid 
of the milestones entirely with no replacements, but in this case, 
having the testing week once a month would attract press coverage as 
well.

Why? Because milestones in all reality are just a fancy name to slap on 
an ISO that will most likely be stale the next day. You then get people 
installing from these ISOs and potentially even reporting old bugs. The 
unfortunate reality of this press coverage is that you could pick an ISO 
any day of the month and call it "beta," and just because it has that 
name on it means that people will install it because of the appeal of 
the name. Despite the positive press that comes from the associated 
announcements (that can always be made regardless, which is what Lubuntu 
has started doing[1]), in a technical sense, I would even consider it 
*bad* for people to install using these ISOs.

The coordinated testing weeks would allow for there still to be positive 
press coverage (and maybe announcements resulting from cross-team 
collaboration during these times) while not having the downsides of a 
blessed image when the archive isn't in a decently stable state.

[1] https://lubuntu.me/category/newsletter/

-- 
Simon Quigley
tsimonq2 at ubuntu.com
tsimonq2 on freenode and OFTC
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