On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 7:21 AM, Vincent Untz vuntz@opensuse.org wrote:
- end of June: development cycle is too short for many, we miss KDE 4.3
=> not a good option
- July: only possible at the end of July if we want 4 weeks after the
integration of KDE 4.3. But it's not the best time to announce stuff from a marketing point of view (although this could be an opportunity to be really visible since there won't be a lot of other things)
- August: technically possible, but same issue from a marketing point
of view. There might also be an issue with people being away in vacation.
- September: good, except that we miss GNOME for only a few weeks. This
could be bad if people compare with beta of other distros that will be released at the same time with the latest GNOME
- October: only end of October possible if we want 4 weeks after the
integration of GNOME 2.28
- November/December: ok. Development cycle a bit long, unfortunately.
I'd argue that it's highly important to consider the marketing side of things when building the schedule. Building something which is excellent from a technical point of view is not enough to have a successful openSUSE project.
I like the way you're thinking... ;-)
Let me just say, first, that let's *never* plan a release a week before Christmas again, Mmmkay?
(Though we haven't failed to get the word out: http://zonker.opensuse.org/2008/12/19/opensuse-111-coverage/)
For future releases, if we can just rule out anything between the week before Thanksgiving and, say, January 10th or so, that'd be spiffy.
Sooo. First, a question: would a release at the end of July or in August be possible? I think doing this would clearly mitigate the "we don't have the latest GNOME" issue. I'd also like to hear what Zonker thinks of promoting a new release during days that are usually really quiet from a news perspective (mainly because people are away).
My thoughts, from just the marketing perspective:
July and August - we have major events (assuming the economic climate doesn't torpedo them...) during those months, and the opportunities for coverage are really good. We did a push for the openSUSE Build Service 1.0 in July, and did pretty well, all things considered.
Yes, a lot of people are away on vacation, but by the same token, they're good months because (usually) little else is going on.
Missing GNOME is bad. I'd *much* rather have a release with new GNOME + KDE to talk about. We will get dinged in reviews if we ship an "old" desktop. (Whether that is right or wrong can be debated separately - but that's what will happen.)
I much prefer October, with one exception: We want to do the openSUSE conference in September, and I'd really love to have the latest release there.
As for the "add-on" idea... if we released 11.2 in time for the conference, with an update (11.2.1? 11.2.5?) for GNOME, that would give us an additional chance for a small press bump. If the GNOME team (and others) is OK with that approach, I certainly have no objection on the marketing side.
Best,
Zonker