Re: Release Announcement Brainstorm

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 9:34 AM, Stuart Jarvis <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Saturday 04 September 2010 15:46:47 Stuart Jarvis wrote:
>> I've summarised this, some of the previous discussion and some thoughts on
>> some future options at:
>> https://promo.notes.kde.jefferai.org/34
>>
> I've updated this with the discussion on the other thread, shortened it and
> removed the daftest ideas, leaving us with:
>
> - KDE's 4.x Release Day
> - 'Microsoftisation' (using words like FixPack/ Patchday etc)
> - Date based approach to releases
> - No release numbers in announcements (I struggle with this for minor and
> prereleases)
> - Separate releases (we stop releasing the SC together)
> - KDE Suite (just an alternative name for the SC)
> - KDE's 4.x series (generic term for 4.x releases)
>
> I struggle to keep up with all the ideas and pros/cons in the other thread so
> I may have missed some. For me at least, this is a better way of actually
> getting something usable that considers wording for our three types of
> releases.
>
> However, if you disagree then let me know - I'll continue to dip into the
> other thread here and there but I'm lacking time for tracking all the
> subthreads/repetition/circles
>
> Cheers,
> Stu
>

The announcement headline should capture some key essence of the
release in a way that is meaningful to the primary intended audience.
The entire announcement can cover all the details, going well beyond
the headline.

I think that the primary audience for the announcements is the
multitude of KDE users and potential users. The audience is not the
packagers (Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, etc.) or other uber-techies;
they already know. So what catches the interest/attention of the
typical person in the primary audience? It is not the release number.
On the other hand, this may not be the case with "minor and
prereleases". I dunno about those. Still "Get a jump on the next KDE
Plasma" is a preferable headline to "KDE's 4.5.1 Plasma beta
released".

My sense of aseigo's "Release Day" was that it signified an event that
encapsulated everything that was being released at the same time. This
was later compared to Microsoft's Patch Day. It is not an apt
comparison, as the only resemblance between the two events is the use
of capital letters. Microsoft has Patch Days for completely different
reasons than KDE has release events. However, if every KDE release
were a "Release Day", these would certainly come to resemble "Patch
Days".

The KDE release schedule is based on an internal focus that provides
benefits to the development process. The actual releases themselves
are offered externally. Releasing a bundle garners attention from
external audiences that small incremental improvements and releases
wouldn't. A significant release is newsworthy & noteworthy. A series
of small improvements are only partly visible, and then in comparison
over time. In other words, no major story will be written about an
individual user who notices "Wow, this KDE stuff is certainly a lot
nicer than it was a year ago. I don't know why exactly, but I like it
better." So presuming that bundled releases are beneficial to the KDE
standing, what is the news as it relates to the then current release?
When I read that Snow Leopard is "the world's most advanced operating
system", it strikes me that KDE Plasma Workspaces, Platform and
Applications are something more than KDE Release 4.5.

Carl
 
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