Criticisms of KDE 3 Release Process

An anonymous submitter sent in a link to a recent email from the kde-devel list, criticizing the release process. Hopefully the KDE guys can work out any problems and keep up the good work that we've seen in the past. Update: 03/10 14:20 GMT by M : One of the comments below points out that another KDE developer has made an extensive response to the original criticisms.

Comments

Make sure to get both sides of the story

[klieber]

The post linked to in the /. article is one side of the story. To get both (all) sides of the story, check out this thread:

http://lists.kde.org/?t=101566017800001&r=1&w=2

And specifically, Dirk Mueller's response:

http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=101567612 207504&w=2

I'm not saying one side is more right than the other -- merely that there are certainly two sides to this issue.

word of reason from waldo bastian:

[Karma Sucks]

From: Waldo Bastian
To: kde-core-devel@mail.kde.org
Subject: Thoughts about releases.
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 15:47:53 -0800

Releases are a funny thing, you know, we love them and we hate them. Before a
release everyone tends to get all excited and some people see a bunch of bugs
and problems and then go into panic-mode. I have seen it happening with about
every KDE release. Psychology must be playing tricks on the human mind.
Looking back though, KDE releases have all been pretty ok. 2.0 could have
been a bit more stable, but it is questionable whether delaying it would have
helped much.

Instead of going in panic-mode it is usually more constructive to check for
remaining problems and either fix them yourself, or report them to one of the
lists. Based on such reports a release coordinator will be able to get an
impression of the overall quality and make an informed decission whether to
release or to postpone.

Unlike popular believe there is no shame in delaying a release till it has
reached a quality that is desirable. It is up to the release coordinator to
decide when that point has been reached. The sole purpose of release
schedules is to coordinate develoment _WITHIN_ KDE itself. Distro's like
Conectiva, Mandrake or SuSE may find it inconvenient that a KDE release
happens later than originally planned but quite frankly that's their problem,
not KDE's.
(And in my case that's partly my problem because I happen to work for SuSE,
but I disgress).

I would also like to make use of the opportunity to thank Dirk for his hard
work on this release. Thank you Dirk!

And now let's have some fun finding those last remaining bugs....

Cheers,
Waldo
--
Advanced technology only happens when people take a basic idea and add to it.
-- Bob Bemer