Re: Releases in three months?

On Tuesday 09 July 2013 12:42:43 Nuno Pinheiro wrote:
> A Terça, 9 de Julho de 2013 13:07:02 Àlex Fiestas escreveu:
> > On Tuesday 09 July 2013 06:12:03 Carl Symons wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 7:38 PM, Àlex Fiestas <[email protected]> 
wrote:
> > > > Hi there, how is the promo team doing?
> > > > 
> > > > Today I've sent a proposal to kde-core-devel about  making a
> > > > release
> > > > every
> > > > 3 months. While developers discuss on that list whether it works
> > > > for
> > > > them
> > > > or not I'd like to ask you separately your PoV on the matter.
> > > 
> > > Without commenting on what Lydia, Jos and Nuno have written...
> > > 
> > > Why? What is the reasoning behind a 3 month release cycle? What
> > > advantages does it bring to KDE, KDE users, downstream folks?
> > 
> > You have information there:
> > http://community.kde.org/KDE_Core/ReleasesProposal
> > 
> > Mostly, be more agile, release ready features faster, etc.
> > 
> > Promo wise,. we have to compete with the Web these days, the Web can
> > make releases everyday and they are automatically delivered to the
> > end user. Applications on phones do the same. We should follow.
> 
> I dont agree with those points. Some one on the other side comented on
> firefox..
> and personly the new way they release the thing I dont like it much,
> they went from to far apart to, "I dont care any more"
> 
> I still see value on bulding up a desire for the new thing, building
> up hype around it, aka  "im working on this amazing feature for the
> upcoming foo" and making people having to wayt for it hads value to
> it. having to wayt for somthing values the thing... intsnt
> gratification does not take you very far. the key is how much is to
> long ??? I personaly think that 9/8 months would be perfect from that
> POV. and that 6 months is alarady to fast,.

Have you ever worked with an agile development process where you make a 
small release every other week and then get feedback from your customer 
or your users so that you can improve the features in the next 
iteration? If you haven't then you might not be able to get what's so 
great about fast release cycles.

FWIW, the team I work with currently has a release cycle of one week. 
Obviously, those releases are no huge feature releases that bring tons 
of new features. No, every release brings just a few new features and/or 
improves a few existing features.

I, personally, don't buy your "we need slow release cycles so that we 
can build up a hype". IMHO this is nonsense because almost each hype is 
followed by disillusionment or even disappointment. Hypes never live up 
to the expectations of the users.

I'm a friend of being modest in what we promise so that we can surprise 
and delight our users with what we deliver.

I'll close with a citation from Eric S. Raymond "The Cathedral and the 
Bazaar":
    Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers.

(http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s04.html)


Regards,
Ingo


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