For future 2-month releases, I think that on the branch date, we should branch and immediately make -rc1 tarballs. Then the community can test, report bugs/showstoppers, and those will be fixed on master and backported to the branch. When it seems there are no more showstoppers, make -rc2 tarballs, let test a few more days. If no showstoppers this time, re-brand it as the final release.
That sounds perfect. This release was our first experiment. I think we should get it out the door and start thinking about how we can improve the release process for the June release.
I think we owe Abdelatif thanks. What has happened could not have happened without his contribution. There was no one else standing up to do this job and Abdelatif stepped in and did it. Their should be no criticisms because none of us are in a place where we can "cast the first stones" because we did not do the work. Rather, we should offer our thanks. Suggestions for improvement are welcome and if you want to be helpful, they should be included in a release procedure document.
Thanks, Abde!
