[rabbitmq-discuss] What does "beta" mean for RabbitMQ?

[Uwe Kubosch]

Hi Alexis!

Thank you for the quick reply.

My initial thoughts:

'beta' implies 'unfinished' and 'unstable'

'release candidate' better reflects your description of the status of  
the release.

Make an event of declaring a release "final", and announce this event  
in the initial release announcement.  Something like:

"This release has 'release candidate' status pending user feedback and  
will be declared as 'final' in 4 weeks unless major bugs are  
detected.  We recommend that developers, testers and non-critical  
systems using earlier versions of RabbitMQ upgrade to this latest  
release."

Then 4 weeks later:  "RabbitMQ 1.8.0 declared final!  The package has  
been downloaded 4 million times and we have received positive feedback  
from our users.  No major bugs have been reported.  We recommend that  
all users of earlier versions of RabbitMQ upgrade to this latest  
release."

If you detect major bugs, you do not announce the 'final' status.  You  
should announce the bug instead and include when the bug is expected  
to fixed.  Something like "A major bug was reported and will be fixed  
in the 1.9.0 release.

Personally I like patch level releases to quickly fix bugs to make a  
minor release branch stable, but i realize it takes less organization  
and effort to fix the bug in the next minor release.

I also like packaging the release candidate with an 'rc1' in the  
version string like rabbitmq-server-1.8.0rc1, but that requires  
repackaging when the final release is out, so keeping the same package  
but declaring it stable after a while saves the extra packaging.

Really, any solution that keeps me from browsing around looking for  
the 'stable' release is good :)


Uwe



On Oct 18, 2009, at 11:16 PM, Alexis Richardson wrote:

> Uwe
>
> Great questions.  We seek advice on how to make this clearer.  Please
> take a look at this first, and let us know what you think:
>
> http://www.trapexit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=49591&sid=20d06e54360b9122cd625eb6e459cfeb
>
> alexis
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 10:00 PM, Uwe Kubosch <uwe at datek.no> wrote:
>> Hi all!
>> Here are a few FAQs for you:
>> Why are all the releases of RabiitMQ "beta"?
>> What does "beta" mean in this context?
>> Should I NOT use RabbitMQ in a production environment?
>> What are the criteria for a "final" release of RabbitMQ?
>> Feel free to answer directly or post a link  :)  I have read the  
>> FAQs and
>> other documentation, and RabbitMQ seems mature from user reports,  
>> but the
>> official status of "beta" bothers me, and I am struggling to  
>> understand what
>> it means.
>> Any reply is appreciated.
>>
>> With kind regards,
>> Uwe Kubosch
>> Datek Wireless AS
>> Norway
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> rabbitmq-discuss mailing list
>> rabbitmq-discuss at lists.rabbitmq.com
>> http://lists.rabbitmq.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rabbitmq-discuss
>>
>>

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