Re: Question for all candidates: Release process

[Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@gwolf.org>]

Wouter Verhelst dijo [Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 12:57:13AM +0100]:
> In my opinion, the best release we ever had (that I was a part of, at
> least) was the Etch release process; shortly after Sarge had been
> released, the release managers had started to regularly update the
> project as a whole on where we were in the process, and I believe that
> worked very very well. During the whole of the Etch release process,
> there was never really a point in time where I felt I didn't know how
> far away the release still was.
> 
> It feels to me as though the frequency and/or quality of updates has
> reduced somewhat since the Etch release, though I'll readily admit that
> that is just a gut feeling. At any rate, I do not feel I am as
> up-to-date as I was during the Etch release process on when the release
> is going to happen. I don't think it's going to take more than, say,
> half a year, though.

Hmm, you got me thinking here on why this happened, as I share your
impression. Maybe it was because the project as a whole put more care
into the release process after the massive pain it was to release
Sarge, a three-year-long pain we didn't want to suffer again? For
Lenny we lost some of that push, although the release process was
still mostly swift, with a minor slip regarding what we expected. 

As for the reasons why we are not freezing yet... I think it is
somewhat a lack of commitment to what the Release Team says, as (too)
many people felt betrayed with the way the freeze-related
announcements were made (a topic that has already been analized
here).

So, going back to the questioning of the candidates: Do you agree with
this very simplistic analysis? If so, how would you push to get the
drive and the confidence back?

-- 
Gunnar Wolf • gwolf@gwolf.org • (+52-55)5623-0154 / 1451-2244