Upcoming Releases Schedule...

[Robert Watson]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2008, Robert Watson wrote:

>> 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.

... but the wrong calendar -- I was using 18 rather than 12 months, not sure 
where that came from.

>> 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.

The key point here holds, however: I think we should not ever be in the 
position of telling people that support lifetime on a release has been 
reduced.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge