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List:       owncloud
Subject:    Re: [owncloud-user] ownCloud Client Version 2.2.2 Released
From:       Joel Lord <jpl () ilk ! org>
Date:       2016-06-27 13:11:57
Message-ID: 836c1726-1925-33b9-1093-d5ab1a3d512c () ilk ! org
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I have generally been on this list to watch for updates and release 
notes, so I've been watching here for a while.  This thread has started 
to hit on what has probably been my biggest complaint, so I'll finally 
chime in below:

On 6/27/2016 8:39 AM, Klaas Freitag wrote:
> On 27.06.2016 11:24, Carsten Schiefner wrote:
>>> The question like the one here is coming up after each major release 
>>> since
>>> years without any sign of improvement of the communication to the 
>>> users.
>
> I am not sure what the point is here. Are you complaining that we 
> should communicate better why we do not enable the auto updater 
> earlier? Or do you think we should enable it on release date right 
> away? What is the lack of communication that you see?
>
> Again, the policy is like this:
> We use to enable the auto updater of the client around one week after 
> the community release. The reason to not do it immediately is that IF 
> there is a screw up in the new release, we have another chance to fix it.
>
> That did not happen for the 2.2.0 and 2.2.1 case because we found the 
> quality of both releases not up to the mark, and rather focused on 
> fixing the probs and releasing a proper version 2.2.2.
>
> We did not say that too loud, that is true.
>
My take on Carsten's wording is that the communication surrounding 
releases is missing the mark in a key way.  IF the intended primary 
upgrade method is the auto updater, the lag between the announced 
"release" and the actual release to the updater is very off-putting.  At 
this point, I see a "client version X.Y.Z released" message go by and 
that tells me that some time in the future my client is going to ask to 
upgrade... maybe.  I'm mostly watching the release notes, because the 
release announcements don't mean much.

I've got to suggest a few changes to wording.  You're effectively doing 
two different release dates for each release, and using the release to 
the community as an RC-final rather than a full release. As you said, 
"IF there is a screw up in the new release, we have another chance to 
fix it."  So can we either get the "Community Release" to be tagged as 
RC-final OR as... something else that communicates "Community Release"  
(CR?  I don't know.)  OR, can we get "General Availability" for the 
final release to the auto updater?  2.2.2-GA would be fine.  I don't 
think you'd even need to change the actual version number in the code 
between the two, the issue is the communication of the two releases, not 
the actuality of the number.  It's silly (IMO) to do an entire release 
just to update the version number.  But you're already doing two 
notifications, so I'm hoping we can slightly change the language without 
adding literally any effort to the job.

Either way, having two release dates with no real distinction between 
them is very confusing to those of us users relying on the auto updater 
and with no visibility in to the process between the two releases.

Thank you for all that you do, and for the great product.  I'm not even 
sure how many people and charity groups I've gotten moved on to ownCloud 
in the past couple years.  If this sort of communications issue is the 
biggest problem a project has, it's in very, very good shape.  Keep up 
the good work.

-- 
Joel Lord

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