Re: Test cycle #2 images (was: Updated non-free patch)

[Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl>]

The set of boot-floppies is now complete.  We also have new release notes
as uploaded by Josip Rodin.  As far as I know the archive will be ready
for CD making by tomorrow.

That opens a different discussion.  As far as I know, the procedure with
hamm and slink (did bo have Official images?) was that the images were
made after the release.  This took a while, particularly since the
mirror network was under heavy strain at that time.

I hoped to fix that with the test cycles.  Since the archive is kept
unchanged during testing, there's no big mirror pulse at release time.
The CD images can be created at the start of testing and will already
be in place when the release is made.  This also has the advantage
that the Official images will actually be tested before their release
(instead of images that are merely similar to them).

However, Mr. Bezemer said that it is not possible to make Official
 -- that is, releaseable -- images at the start of the test cycle, because
users would get confused.  I think that could easily be avoided
by presenting them clearly as test images, but then I tend to
underestimate human stupidity.

Mr. Bezemer proposed to have a pause at release time, after the decision
is made and before it is announced, so that the Official images can be
created and put in place.  Jason Gunthorpe estimated this would take
about four days.  Since things get very hectic around release time,
I see no way to reserve four days for this.  It also has the same
disadvantage as the original approach, which is that the images we
mark as Official are freshly built and not well tested.

What do you think?

Richard Braakman