> > We forked the 4.0 and 4.1 branches beginning of May. Unfortunately, for > 4.1 we were only able to release GA in December which impacted how much > time we could spend focussing on the next release and the progress that we > could do. By consequence, I am wondering if it makes sense for us to branch > 5.0 in May or if we should postpone that date. > > What is your opinion? >
My initial preference is to stick with the May branch and its initial alpha/beta release. Giving in to the delays doesn't improve the causes of them. We should focus on why it took 6 months to go from 4.1 first alpha to GA and what happened inside that time window. I'm not convinced summer holidays can be to blame for. I think a lack of QA/CI and folk dedicating time to get it to GA is the bigger problem. On the QA/CI front I believe we have made significant improvements already. And we saw less releases of 4.1 before its GA. I also think reducing the focus and scope of the subsequent release cycle is a cost that creates the correct incentive, so long as we share the burden of the stabilising_to_GA journey. While it might be difficult for folk to commit their time over summer holidays, the three months of May-July should be way more than enough if we are serious about it. My thoughts don't touch on CEPs inflight. But my feeling is this should not be about what we want to "squeeze in" (which only makes the problem worse), rather whether the folk that are offering their time to stabilise to GA have a preference for May-July or their September-November. "Postponing" suggests a one-off move, but I'm presuming this would be a permanent change?
