[Mageia-dev] measuring our resources for release support

[Margot]

On Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:44:03 -0400
andre999 <andr55 at laposte.net> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> At the last packager's meeting I've been given the task of
> gathering ideas of how to measure our resources for supporting
> releases. Part of this is to see if we have (or will likely have)
> the resources for a LTS (long-term support) release.
> 
> These resources will involve QA, testing, packaging updates, etc.
> 
> So we're inviting input - there are probably factors overlooked,
> so don't hesitate with your suggestions.
> 
> Please post to this thread, so we have all the suggestions in one
> place.
> 
> Regards :)

Before deciding whether we can support a LTS release, we need to
look at what users will expect as 'support' for any non-LTS release.

This is the support that I, as a mere user, would expect:

(a) security & bugfix updates
(b) supported backports of popular applications (Firefox,
LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Gimp etc.)
(c) user support - experienced Mageia users available on mailing
lists/forums/IRC giving help and advice to users who have problems.

And, as many users will not be willing and/or able to upgrade to
latest stable Mageia immediately when it is released, I would
expect all of that support to continue until next-but-one release -
so, support for Mageia 1 until the release of Mageia 3, support for
Mageia 2 until release of Mageia 4 etc.

With our 9-month release cycle, that means that all releases would
be supported for 18 months. Is there any need for LTS on top of
that? People running servers might think that 18 months is not long
enough, but Mageia is not primarily aimed as a server distro and 18
months should be plenty for desktop users.

Bear in mind that many of our brave volunteers will be supporting 3
versions of Mageia - current and immediate previous stable, plus
cauldron -  so adding a 4th LTS version might put too much strain on
their hardware or on their family life!

-- 
Margot
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