Re: Releasing in September

On 01/20/2016 07:40 AM, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> Our current 9.5/9.6 timing looks more like the 8.X series of release
> dates. Everyone might be fine with that, but we had better be prepared
> for November-February major release dates going forward.

Bruce,

Thank you for bringing this up it is a good time to discuss it. I think
we have a number of things we need to consider when it comes to releases:

1. When we release
2. What we release
3. When not to release

#1 September is actually a great time to release. However, I think that
we are going to run into trouble keeping that time frame. The reality is
PostgreSQL of today is a lot more complex than the PostgreSQL of even 3
years ago.

That means that unless we are willing to have stunted releases, we are
going to miss release dates. We need to be able to say, "Ompf, no whiz
bang features this release, mostly polish" or "These whiz bang features
need more testing, we are pushing our release". If we aren't willing to
do that then we need to reconsider having a fixed release date and
perhaps start a release time frame (9.6 will be released Q4 2016).

#2 This is a longer topic. I have been stewing in my head about releases
for years. I have even brought up the idea of an Ubuntu style release
cycle on list once or twice. The more I think about it, the more I think
this can help our community. We essentially would have two types of
releases:

STS:

* Supported for 1 release cycle plus 6 months (18-24 months)
* Inline upgrades supported

LTS:

* Supported for standard 5 years
* Is allowed to break binary format from STS but not previous LTS. This
allows two LTS versions per 5 year support cycle

There is more to say on this but this is already a long reply.

#3 The fact that 9.5 was delayed is a good thing, not a bad one. I
believe we need to be much more willing to push a button that says, "It
isn't done." Which goes back to the idea in #1 of having a release
"window" versus date. We aren't a company. We don't need to adhere to an
exact release schedule.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

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