[Zope3-dev] Re: Zope X3.1 Feature Freeze

[Brian Sutherland]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2005 at 09:25:10AM -0500, Jim Fulton wrote:
> Brian Sutherland wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 18, 2005 at 09:07:50AM -0500, Jim Fulton wrote:
> > 
> >>subsequent releases.  I had previously suggested every 3 months,
> >>but I think that's too agressive.  I think 4 months, or even 6 months
> >>would be better. But, in any case, I am absolutely committed to
> >>a regular release cycle, starting with 2.9 and X3.2.
> > 
> > 
> > If you do decide on using a 6 month release cycle, you might want to
> > think about synchronizing with the other open source projects around
> > that also use a 6 monthly timed release cycle. Ubuntu Linux, for
> > example, might be particularly interesting as it is directly downstream
> > of Zope3.
> 
> So when is Ubunto released?  Do other distributions have similar
> release schedules.  I assume the various projects with 6-month schedules
> are not synchronized.

The next version of Ubuntu is scheduled for 4 april [1], then every 6
months after that. But there is an upstream version freeze about 3
months before this date [2]. I am not entirely sure, but it looks like a
Zope 3.x release should be before the upstream version freeze if it can
be included. Bugfix, i.e. 3.x.x releases can be included later than this
date. I have CC'ed the Ubuntu release manager Jeff Waugh, so maybe he
can jump in and explain better/correct me.

Ubuntu and Debian are the only distributions I can speak of with some
knowledge, but an entirely un-scientific bit of research of the current
top 7 distributions on distrowatch [3] shows that historically:

Release Times:
1. Mandrake Linux - March/October
2. Fedora - May/November
3. Ubuntu - April/October
4. Mepis - No visible pattern
5. SUSE - April/October
6. Debian - :)
7. Knoppix - Frequent Releases, but no pattern

So as a first draft of a release timetable:
1. Zope 3.x releases:
    - December/June
2. Zope 3.x derivatives releases (e.g. SchoolBell/SchoolTool/...):
    - January/July
3. Major Distribution Releases:
    - March-May/October-Decamber

This should:
    * Give distributors time to build packages and integrate Zope into
      their distribution.
    * Give Zope 3 derivatives time to have their products included in
      the distributions as well.
    * Time for a Zope/derivatives bugfix release for the issues found
      in testing by bleeding edge distribution users and derivatives
      developers/users.

[1] http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/HoaryReleaseSchedule
[2] http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/UpstreamVersionFreeze
[3] http://distrowatch.com

-- 
Brian Sutherland

It's 10 minutes, 5 if you walk fast.