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Dear all, |
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I would like to get a discussion rolling about what, exactly, |
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constitutes a Gentoo release, and what we want to accomplish with any |
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given release. I'm forwarding (with Aron's permission) an e-mail that |
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agriffis sent to -releng describing his view about what our release |
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process currently is. I believe that this description does describe |
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the current process reasonably well, but perhaps some may disagree. |
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More important, is this process what we _want_ our release process to |
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be? Gentoo "releases" are different from those of any other |
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distribution, inasmuch as the "version" of Gentoo that a user is |
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running (meaning what collection of packages are on the user's |
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machine) depends on what *hour* Gentoo was installed, so from a |
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technical standpoint the "release" has more to do with the |
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installation medium than anything else. At the same time, it is |
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important to recognize that releases also serve a public-relations |
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purpose. Take a look at OpenBSD's recent release, |
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http://www.openbsd.org/35.html. The "What's New" section of that page |
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is fairly extensive, and distrowatch and other news sites have |
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provided OpenBSD with a fair amount of coverage about their new release. |
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Even if we maintain a calendar-based release system, should we also |
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be striving to make releases goal-oriented as well? If so, how do we |
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go about doing so? |
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|
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Some thoughts, |
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g2boojum |
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|
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----- Forwarded message from Aron Griffis <agriffis@g.o> ----- |
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|
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From: Aron Griffis <agriffis@g.o> |
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Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 14:48:25 -0400 |
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To: gentoo-releng@l.g.o |
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User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i |
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Subject: Re: [gentoo-releng] Meeting time |
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|
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Hi Jon, |
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|
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ZhEN wrote: [Mon May 10 2004, 10:53:19AM EDT] |
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> Please find attached the compiled list of features that I fielded |
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> from -dev, -core, and personal e-mails. |
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|
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My perception of the current release process is this: We set a date |
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for release. Developers work on features. Whatever is done in time |
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for the release is what goes in, the other stuff waits for the next |
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release. IMHO, part of the point of doing more frequent releases is |
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to ease pressure from developers; if we can't finish a given feature, |
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then we know there will be another release in 3 months, so it's okay. |
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|
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So I don't understand this list of potential features for 2004.2. |
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Shouldn't this be maintained separately from the release process? Why |
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is releng meeting to talk about this list? |
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|
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Regards, |
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Aron |
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|
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-- |
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Aron Griffis |
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Gentoo Linux Developer (alpha / baselayout / ia64 / mozilla / mutt / ruby / vim) |
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|
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----- End forwarded message ----- |
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|
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-- |
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Grant Goodyear |
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Gentoo Developer |
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g2boojum@g.o |
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http://www.gentoo.org/~g2boojum |
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GPG Fingerprint: D706 9802 1663 DEF5 81B0 9573 A6DC 7152 E0F6 5B76 |
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