Re: RFC: going to add 2.18 branch

[Gabor Kelemen <kelemeng gnome hu>]

Clytie Siddall �a:
> On 07/11/2006, at 9:07 PM, Gabor Kelemen wrote:
>
> > Abel Cheung �a:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I have done the necessary changes to switch to 2.18 release and
> > > drop 2.14 branch data form status pages. It's ready for commit.
> > > If anyway still like 2.14 to be there, please shout aloud, otherwise
> > > I'll go ahead and commit the change (and pray).
> > >
> > > Abel
> > This week, 2.17.2 is due to be out. Perhaps it's really time to replace
> > 2.14 with 2.18.
> That's certainly the way it looks from our POV. However, I'm beginning 
> to realize that things may be different for our users.
>
> I've just translated the release-notes for Debian "Etch", the new 
> Debian system which will be out this December. It proudly announced 
> that it included GNOME 2.14 !
>
> I gather Ubuntu did the same. So we're going to receive feedback and 
> bug reports on GNOME 2.14 files from a large section of our user-base.
> I don't understand why the distros don't release the current GNOME 
> version, but it means we do need to maintain and update what to so 
> many users is "the latest GNOME": GNOME 2.14.
Well, they actually do, if their policies allow it, for example, 
recently released FC6 and Ubuntu Edgy ship 2.16, soon-to-be released 
ditributions, like OpenSuse will too. These are following time-based 
release schedule and they are trying to ship the newest versions - even 
when packages are a little buggy [1] [2].
Debian follows the "when it's done" policy, meaning they are freezing 
versions at some point, then testing and bugfixing packages while they 
are reasonably bug-free, but also somewhat obsolete too.

> In effect, that leaves us working actively on three GNOME branches: 
> the upcoming version (HEAD or 2.18), the latest release (2.16), and 
> what the distros release as the latest release (2.14). :S
This is exactly why the Gnome project officially supports only the 
latest stable release and why will be no more releases from anything 
older than 2.16.x, and why fixing bugs in older branches will not result 
less bugs in updated distro packages.

Also, the term "what the distros release as the latest release" is 
changing over time, and we can't support everything that is supported by 
one or the another distributor for three years - this would mean working 
on about six different branches!

Thus, if a distribution supports Gnome 2.14 (or even older versions, for 
years), fixing translation and other bugs in these products is really a 
distribution-level task.

And what about users? Well, when bugs are already fixed in say 2.16, you 
can point your users to this version and encourage them either to 
upgrade or re-use the given file at distribution level.

But all of this is not changing the need for new statistics pages for 
upcoming release.

Regards

Gabor Kelemen

[1]: http://www.advogato.org/person/svu/diary.html?start=63
[2]: http://blog.ekiga.net/index.php?p=34