In another email I have asked the community to vote on the latest 10.4 release candidate. I realize that some people have expressed concern that this will not let the new release be adequately exposed to the user community, and I think that this is a valid point. But I would like to finish this release following the existing release process. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of adding new steps at this stage, especially if those steps will increase the time it takes to get the release out.
For future releases, I think it would be good to have a discussion about how the release process can be changed to more actively engage the user community while at the same time adhering to the Apache rules/guidelines. One possible solution could be to create (with a vote) a formal beta release that users can test, and then create (with a vote) a proper release based on feedback from from users. The main challenge that I see with this approach is that, based on past experience, the time between the beta and the formal release must be rather long, since it takes time before the user community starts using any new release. Add to that the time needed to address the issues discovered while vetting the beta, and you get an (IMO) very long release cycle. But maybe there are ways around this? -- dt
