Re: [HACKERS] Release cycle length

On Tuesday, November 18, 2003, at 05:13 PM, Andreas Grabmüller wrote:

> ----- Original-Nachricht -----
> Von: "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy(at)postgresql(dot)org>
> An: Neil Conway <neilc(at)samurai(dot)com>
> CC: pgsql-www(at)postgresql(dot)org, PostgreSQL Development
> <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
> Datum: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 05:06 AM
> Betreff: [pgsql-www] [HACKERS] Release cycle length
>
>> On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, Neil Conway wrote:
>>
>>> That said, I'm not really sure how we can make better use of the beta
>>> period. One obvious improvement would be making the beta
>>> announcements
>>> more visible: the obscurity of the beta process on www.postgresql.org
>>> for 7.4 was pretty ridiculous. Does anyone else have a suggestion on
>>> what we can do to produce a more reliable .0 release in less time?
>>
>> Agreed ... here's a thought ...
>>
>> take the download page and break it into two pages:
>>
>> page 1: broken down into "dev" vs "stable" versions, including the
>> date of
>> release ...
>>
>> page 2: when you click on the version you want to download, it brings
>> you
>> to a subpage that is what the main page currently is (with all the
>> flags
>> and such) but instead of just sending ppl to the ftp site itself,
>> actually
>> have the link go to the directory that contains that version on the
>> mirror
>> site ...
>>
>> that first page of the download could contain descriptoins of the
>> variosu
>> releases, and state of releases?
>>
>> ---------------------------(end of
>> broadcast)---------------------------
>> TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
>
> We could also use some download page similar to the one on
> httpd.apache.org - first you select a mirror (and one near you has
> been preselected) and under it you get a list of possible downloads...
> might be easier for the users than browsing through FTP...

From a users' standpoint, do you think the users are looking for a
mirror or for software? Maybe put the download first, then a selection
of mirrors. I haven't done a lot of downloading, so my perspective
might be a little off. And advantage of the mirror > download order
would be if people are downloading more than one item at a time. Then
they wouldn't have to go back to choose another download. However, once
they choose the mirror (and commence the download) a page could come up
offering the option to download more from this mirror.

Just some thoughts.
Michael