On Tuesday, April 12, 2011 11:24:18 AM Thomas Hertweck wrote:
On 06/04/11 09:06, Andreas Jaeger wrote:
The voting on how to do the versioning is over and the "old school" has won by 55 per cent (of 98 participants). Thanks to all that participated in the two votes and the discussion around the topic.
As Coolo said in http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2011-03/msg00516.html, we'd
like to make a small change to the numbering: We will not have a .0 release but only .1, .2, .3 release. Since we have releases in three months, the November release is always the .1 release, the July release the .2 and the March release the .3.
So, the plan is that the next release will be called openSUSE 12.1 and launched on the 10th of November, 2011! Two years later - on the 14th of November, 2013 - we will then have the openSUSE 13.1 release.
So, the next four releases are: * November 2011: openSUSE 12.1 * July 2012: openSUSE 12.2 * March 2013: openSUSE 12.3 * November 2013: openSUSE 13.1
Just a bit of feedback: I explained this versioning scheme to some people currently not connected to openSUSE in any way (actually, these people are my colleagues at work). All of them - and I am not exaggerating here - came back and said it looks like a silly versioning scheme, it is not intuitive and obviously quite confusing. I thought I should perhaps pass this feedback on because they were very clear in their message...
I know, I know, there was a poll and there is an outcome, but we should nevertheless at least listen to external feedback.
[...] Note that openSUSE does not have a major and minor numbering, even if it seems so.
Well, then I think we should have changed the versioning scheme. The fact that you had to write the sentence cited above already highlights that there is a problem. A version number XX.Y implicitly implies a major/minor scheme. Why is that? Because millions of software projects use such a major/minor versioning scheme. It's like saying a red light means you have to stop at a traffic light unless you are in openSUSE town where the rules are different and a red light actually means you are allowed to move on. Do you really think that isn't confusing? To be honest, I think it is. The old scheme didn't make much sense, and the new scheme doesn't make sense either. I do of course not want to re-open the whole discussion, the outcome of the poll has to be accepted although I think the number of participants is rather low - it seems as if even the majority of openSUSE members didn't participate.
Now somebody suggested on this list to ship 12.1.1 and 12.1.2 updates in the future. This clearly implies a major/minor versioning scheme for openSUSE, I'm afraid. I think some people really have to make up their mind and/or the whole issue should be reconsidered - it should at least be consistent within openSUSE. We either follow a major/minor scheme and have a corresponding version string, or not. But a mixture of both ideas is really bad.
Regards, Th.
PS. Sorry, I was away, otherwise I would have sent the initial feedback earlier.
Thomas, I think I (mostly) agree with your colleagues about the NEW version numbering. I don't know how such a silly versioning could have passed with the majority vote. Now that it has been decided we must realise that it may be VERY hard to get people to move from this to something better. I have proposed a model for version numbering that would make the openSUSE numbering much more meaningful( this would look like 12.0, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, etc.). If there is NO way to move from the voted upon numbering system than I think we should at least use it with my model (that is where the 12.1.1, 12.1.2 numbering comes from)... I know you said this would be bad and maybe you are right but then I think that the only other model that works is the one I proposed originally. I hope that the community can look at not only the value in the meaning of the numbering expressed in my proposal but also see the user level benafits to releaseing our project in this way. I would like to know how you feel about the numbering and release model I proposed. Also what you think your colleagues would think of the number we would use with it?.. that is if you feel comfortable making that prediction. -- Drew Adams Skype: Druonysus Mobile: 1.714.788.4038 www.facebook.com/Druonysus en.opensuse.org/User:Druonysus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org