Shift 3.7.0 or 3.7.X releases - was: ANNOUNCE: Release plan updated - two weeks between RCs

[Bjoern Michaelsen]

On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 05:14:02PM +0200, Petr Mladek wrote:
> As mentioned, the 3.7.0 release and 3.7.1-rc1 are planed for the same
> week now. It is bad because there is no time to proceed feedback from
> 3.7.0 users.

Comparing:

 https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseSchedule
 http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleasePlan/3.7

I find currently:

- the 3.7.0 is already too late for a Alpha1/FeatureFreeze
- the 3.7.1 is already currently is ok for the BetaFreeze (LibreOffice is seeded)
- the 3.7.2 release is fitting in just before Final Freeze
- the 3.7.3 release is already a SRU (stable release update)

> Possible solutions:
> 
> 1. Make 3.7.0 two weeks earlier. I am not happy to change this so close
>    to the feature freeze.

understood.

> 2. Make 3.7.X bugfix releases 1 or 2 weeks later. It might cause
>    troubles for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other distros who planed to use .3
>    bugfix release in their distro releases.
> 
>    Well, they might use 3.7.3-rc1 or 3.7.2. They should be pretty good
>    as well. The number of weeks for bugfixing stays the same.

3.x.3 is already too late for us currently -- however, pushing back two weeks
would make 3.7.2 miss final freeze. In that case I would have to seriously
consider to not ship that series at all -- shipping with a 3.7.1 is very likely
too early.

> 3. Remove 3.7.0-rc3 or some beta. It would mean to do the hard code
>    freeze 1 or two weeks earlier => less time for testing and fixing

Personally, that sounds like the best option for me for 3.7.

> 4. Do 3.7.0-RCs every week (use the original schedule). There is not
>    enough time for feedback => demotivating for QA.

Yep.

> I think that the 2nd solution is the best compromise for 3.7.0. The 1st
> variant would be best for the further releases (3.8.0, 3.9.0).

I would prefer to go with 3) for 3.7 and 1) for later releases (shifting at
least two weeks).

Best,

Bjoern