[haiku-development] Re: Haiku R1A5 release timeline
- From: Urias McCullough <umccullough@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 14:41:08 -0700
On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 2:25 PM, SMC.Collins <smc.collins@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> todays proposed release. So I fail to understand the logic of saying that
> releasing a alpha with a new webkit browser, PM, APIC, Scheduler and tons of
> bug fixs, driver enhancements etc is worse then Alpha4. I get it, it needs
> to be good enough, but its going to be better previous alphas.
> My issue however, is that instead of finding ways to say YES, people are
> focusing on ways to say NO. Haiku finally has enough regular donors to pay a
> developer on a semi full time basis. another Alpha with good press my help
> to leverage that further, more donors, or encourage existing users to donate
> more.
> The browser work has deffinately spured a increase in donations.
> and too much and too broken, was the last release but more broken then the
> proposed release. Its time to set schedules and try to abide by them. If you
> need help ask, theres a whole community out there that doesn't really know
> how to engage and help. So tell us, what can we do.
Sorry, my response is going to be a bit long winded, and probably a
bit rushed, but I'm having a hard time expressing my feelings on this
matter as well. Here's some stuff to think about:
Several people are concerned with the new backend networking of the
browser having some serious issues. Because we replaced a mature
backend (curl) with a new home-grown (GSOC project) network services
kit, we may have introduced serious regressions to the browser that
didn't exist in alpha 4.
There have been reports that it crashes frequently on some systems.
This is one reason why there is hesitation.
Performance regression concerns with the new scheduler may still exist
(I don't know much about this personally).
Major changes in how the system functions with the addition of PM has
been a constant concern, and it's still got some clunky to it.
These "features" may actually hurt the quality of Haiku since alpha 4
- everyone has different opinions, and the opinions of one don't
necessarily outweigh the opinions of others. It's probably a good idea
to hear what there is to be said before we make hurried decisions.
There are also some things that need to be considered, here's a few:
Do we disable IMAP again for this release so it doesn't inadvertently
destroy someone's entire server-stored email?
There was a last minute disabling of some radeon_hd code last year to
allow it to work more generically with some displays, will we need to
do that again?
Can we disable serial debugging by default on boot?
If we do will we run into some new race condition that nobody has been
testing in the last year that needs to be fixed?
There are going to be a bunch of things like this that people in the
trenches are aware of, but the larger community have little clue is an
outstanding issue.
Have these been considered and decided on yet before setting the
release schedule?
It's not always easy for someone to say: "we must not release because
of X and Y" - but those discussions have to happen or we'll end up
with disaster. This happens all the time, sometimes the list is
longer, and requires more careful planning. Lately (the last year) the
list has been overwhelming - and that is upsetting people who are
generally not involved in the process anyway.
As we strive for higher quality with each alpha release, we're taking
longer and longer to release them. That issue needs to be fixed
somehow. Unfortunately it will probably require some amount of
consensus rather than a handful of people who will try to do it and be
shunned for their attempts.
- Urias
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