Earlier this evening I sent in my proposal to plan already now for several "milestone releases" on the way to KDE 4.0, as well as one polished "Polished KDE Application Release 2006" that concentrates on featuring the ongoing development and polishing of our best KDE3 applications. [This mail is not I've not yet received my own mail from the list -- I've been on travel, and wrote this mail from the backseat of a car :) ] For the KDE4 milestons, the idea includes of course to *announce and publish* such a roadmap, and include rough descriptions of stuff they will contain. The "Applications 2006 Release" of course is only possible, if it gets support by the respective app developers, and if they find it useful for themselves. Otherwise they'll probably just continue releasing each for themselves at the times their creators think is best... Here are more arguments in favor, and thoughts about the two proposals: KDE4 Milestones ("3.9.0"): --------------------------- - would allow a better defined and more structured way of working   for most of us, including translators, documentation writers and   beta testers; - the upcoming TWG should take in the driver seat to lead the discussion about a sane and practical intial roadmap for milestones: How many? In which intervals? With which specific (or only rough) implementation goals? etc. - Milestones should define when each of the envisiged KDE4 core technologies are expected to be usable and "stable" to what degree: dcop/dbus?, kio slaves?, kparts/containers?, bindings/kjs?, kmm/phonon?, plasma?, solid?, kdeprinting/pdf?, ksvg2/kdom2?, tenor?, ktts?, accessibility? ... - Each milestone should be *functional* with its layed down targets;   (this doesnt mean one couldnt completely drop one implementation   for a different one in the next milestone, based on feedback and   field experience); - A milestone would be an own "usable" mini-release not only for developers, but even for enthusiast and power users of KDE so they can play with it, get accustomed to it and provide feedback. There   should be VMware-Player images available for different distros (of course, other virtualisation technologies like Xen would play their role too). We should aim to make KDE4 milestone previews widely   and easily available to our own base, as well as other developers and ISVs); Milestones will certainly help the "fan community" to stay aboard; and from that core ground the news about what's cooking in the KDE oven would easily be spreading to the wider community. At the same time they would somehow take advantage of the "release early, release often" lemma :-) The Grand KDE Application Release 2006 ("3.6.0"?): -------------------------------------------------- - It would allow all those extragear and playground developers who   find it too early to start porting to KDE 4 to continue their work with apps full speed based on 3.5 kdebase and kdelibs. - It would give a good leverage for marketing and promoting some of the extremley good "single" KDE applications (who at the current time mostly do their own releases, their own PR and their own scheduling "in isolation" from each other, rather than in a more coordinated way, and without good support from the MWG (yes, I am aware that it also has advantages for app developers if they can go ahead in their own speed, and releases independently from other subprojects). - It would also be a good testing ground for the proposal Aaron made   sometime back (which aimed at differentiating between KDE "the core   technology platform" and KDE "the applications build on top of it"   by even giving them different names/branding etc.) Which apps come to mind? ------------------------ * First --- quanta/kommander, kmail/kontact, kdeedu, kate...; * then -- amarok, digikam, gwenview, kphotoalbum/kimdaba, koffice, krita, k3b, kmplayer, kaffeine, ktorrent, kile, datakiosk, kst, guidance, kdissert, kalzium, kstars, kig, ktouch, kalva, kopete, guidance -- man!, *do* we have a lot of kick-ass applications! And they are often underrated and/or unknown to many users. They would benefit lots from participating in a joint release effort happening once (or twice?) over the next 12-18 months and being guided by the MWG (who would gain lots of "practicing" for   the 4.0 releases and its milestones too :) [Yes, and I am aware that Krita is part of and deeply embedded into KOffice; but need it stay so? Is a Photoshop-like app part of an Office Suite?)   * and last -- there are lots of goodies developed completely outside of KDE SVN: kat, smb4k, luma, tellico, basket, mateedit, ktechlab, kmymoney, kbarcode, taskjuggler, kalgebra, kchmviewer, noteedit, rosegarden, eric3, kdiff3, twinkle, wengophone, texmaker, apollon, labplot, klamav,... * I've surely forgotten some -- please forgive me and add yourself to the list.... The questions are up for all of you: ------------------------------------ * How do you plan to handle the time until KDE4 has become a platform to base your projects on? * Wait and see? * Do you intend to switch your activities to directly contribute to KDE4/kdelibs/core technologies development, and leave your app resting for the time being? (Sure, this would be *great* because the current group busy already in KDE4 porting feel they can use many more heads and brains. But I've also heard some of you just do not like it, or don't feel competent in that field...) * Do you expect to be porting your own app to KDE4/Qt4 already within the next 4 weeks? * Or do you rather plan for continuing several more months development on the KDE3 platform? If so, do you feel you could benefit bing part of a joint "KDE 2006 Application Release" marketing campaign? Please give your feedback either way -- if you don't, this discussion could have an outcome less desired by you. Some more thoughts: - to me it looks like it could a worth while effort to guide a KDE   Application Release marketing campaign if even only a sixth or a   tenth part of the above projects want to actively participate --   provided they do really create new features for their apps until summer... - of course, the plan for a coordinated (one time only?) "2006 Application Release" that focuses on promoting the most polished KDE apps doesnt mean the apps could only release *then*, and not more often -- it is just meant as an offer to you... (so if the amarok squad plans to release their 1.5 in July and 1.6 in Oktober, while the "common" release is planned for September -- well, then the common release can ship 1.5 as well); - and last, I *bet* that all of the KDE-based commercial distros will also *love* to see something like a "KDE 3.6" (or a "Summer 2006 Release of KDE Apps") that they could print on their next boxed products, rather than having to wait until mid-2007 before they can again sell a new KDE... :) What about aiming at 6-7 months from now (July/August) for a "KDE 3.6 Applications Release" (TODO: find a sexy code name for it)? And then a "First KDE 4.0 Feature Milestone" shortly after that, say in 9 months (September/October?) from now, with 3-5 more milestones to come every 2 months until 4.0 is ready to ship? (A "Zero Milestone" can possibly be ready, and also released, much more early: it would represent only the fully ported KDE3 libs and base, plus the new build system, but most like none of the envisaged new features/technologies). Of course the TWG, once established, may come up with a completely different and better timescale -- the thing is: we must have one *at* *all* ! Cheers, Kurt