So, Sean, are you saying to do (basically) the following when an alpha (or even beta) release is scheduled:
Days till release - Action 14 - Branch the source & Feature freeze 14 - Build RC for review and evaluation 14 - Release RC to developers, encouraging adoption and bug-hunting 13 - 7 - Apply patches as needed - critical issues ONLY6-3 - Determine if some features need to be disabled for safety / image
2-1 - Pre-release for last-minute testing. 0 - RELEASE!That said, most any random nightly from Haiku is in generally good shape, the only real problem is that there is no true community effort involved in the release. Requesting EVERY Haiku-interested party to download and search for problems (on the mailing lists - no mass public requests) should be priority. Indeed, Haiku needs to integrate an issue-reporting mechanism into these builds...
--The loon