Upcoming Releases Schedule...

[Robert Watson]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008, Jo Rhett wrote:

> On Sep 21, 2008, at 1:57 AM, Robert Watson wrote:
>> This is precisely what we already do -- we guarantee we will support the 
>> last release on a branch for 24 months after the release.  The point of 
>> concern being discussed is that we can't tell you for sure which minor 
>> release will be the last release at the time that release goes out the 
>> door, because the extent to which we keep releasing on old branches depends 
>> in large part on how the new branch looks.
>
> I think you are using "last release" in a different way.  "the last release" 
> is always the most release release.  Right now 6.3 will have support for 
> longer than 6.4 will, which is the nature of the problem I raised.  If you 
> always supported the most recent release for 24 months then we wouldn't have 
> any problem.

My calendar disagrees with you on this point -- 18 months from September, 
2008, is after 24 months from January, 2008.  And I think it's much more 
likely the release will go out in October.

> I mean seriously, if you were to say "We will support 6.4 for 24 months 
> *unless* we find it necessary to release 6.5 then I'd be totally happy. 
> But that's not what is being said.

I think we pretty much are saying that: whatever the final release is will be 
supported for 24 months.  6.4 will likely be it on 6.x, but we're not 100% 
committed to that being the final decision because we want to see 7.1 shake 
out well.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge