I think this will great for the project! It's worked well for others (such
as Ubuntu). I like that this remains compatible with our desire to release
every six weeks, while keeping the support/patch load manageable.

Release: +1 single process. This is just a statement of what we commit to
service.

On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 12:31 PM Ahmet Altay <[email protected]> wrote:

> I was not proposing any additional changes to the release process. If we
> think that release process could be improved it would make sense to apply
> it to all releases.
>
> On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 11:01 AM, Lukasz Cwik <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Charles, I would keep the process the same with respect to releasing.
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 11:00 AM Charles Chen <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> (sending to the dev@ list thread as this is more relevant here than
>>> users@)
>>>
>>> Will we be using a different / potentially more rigorous process for
>>> releasing LTS releases?  Or do we feel that any validations that could
>>> possibly be done should already be incorporated into each release?
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 10:57 AM Ahmet Altay <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Update:
>>>>
>>>> I sent out an email to user@ to collect their feedback [1]. I will
>>>> encourage everyone here to collect feedback from the other channels
>>>> available to you. To facilitate the discussion I drafted my proposal in a
>>>> PR [2].
>>>>
>>>> Ahmet
>>>>
>>>> [1]
>>>> https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7d890d6ed221c722a95d9c773583450767b79ee0c0c78f48a56c7eba@%3Cuser.beam.apache.org%3E
>>>> [2] https://github.com/apache/beam-site/pull/537
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 5:20 PM, Lukasz Cwik <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks, I can see the reasoning for LTS releases based upon some
>>>>> enterprise customers needs.
>>>>>
>>>>> Forgot about the 2.1.1 Python release. Thanks for pointing that out.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 4:47 PM Ahmet Altay <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 12:33 PM, Lukasz Cwik <[email protected]>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I like the ideas that your proposing but am wondering what value if
>>>>>>> any do supporting LTS releases add? We maintain semantic versioning and 
>>>>>>> I
>>>>>>> would expect that most users would be using the latest released version 
>>>>>>> if
>>>>>>> not the release just before that. There is likely a long tail of users 
>>>>>>> who
>>>>>>> will use a specific version and are unlikely to ever upgrade.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I believe there is a category of enterprise users who would continue
>>>>>> to use a specific version as long as they know they can get support for 
>>>>>> it.
>>>>>> This usually stems from the need to have a stable environment. There is
>>>>>> also the aspect of validating new product before using. I know some
>>>>>> companies have validation cycles longer than 6 weeks. They will still
>>>>>> upgrade but they would like to upgrade much less frequently.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I was hoping that defining LTS releases will signal these types of
>>>>>> users what releases are worth upgrading to if they have a high cost of
>>>>>> upgrading.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This comes from my anecdotal evidence and I may be wrong.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I believe it would be valuable to ask our users what is most
>>>>>>> important to them with respect to the policy (after we have discussed 
>>>>>>> it a
>>>>>>> little bit) as well since ultimately our goal is to help our users.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I agree with this. Since I am referring to enterprise users primarily
>>>>>> I think some of it will require the companies here to collect that 
>>>>>> feedback.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This could then be documented and we could provide guidance to
>>>>>>> customers as to how to reach out to the group for big bugs. Also note 
>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>> Apache has a security policy[1] in place which we should direct users 
>>>>>>> to.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think document what could be expected of Beam in terms of support
>>>>>> would be very valuable by itself. It will also help us figure out what we
>>>>>> could drop. For example in the recent discussion to drop old API docs,
>>>>>> there was no clear guidance on which SDKs are still supported and should
>>>>>> have their API docs hosted.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think we reference to the Apache security policy on our website. If
>>>>>> not I agree, we should add a reference to it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Also, we don't have any experience in patching a release as we
>>>>>>> haven't yet done one patch version bump. All issues that have been 
>>>>>>> brought
>>>>>>> up were always fixed in the next minor version bump.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I agree. There was the Python 2.1.1 but that is the only example I
>>>>>> could remember.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1: http://www.apache.org/security/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 11:50 AM Pablo Estrada <[email protected]>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I think this all sounds reasonable, and I think it would be a good
>>>>>>>> story for our users. We don't have much experience with patching 
>>>>>>>> releases,
>>>>>>>> but I guess it's a matter of learning and improving over time.
>>>>>>>> -P.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 9:04 PM Ahmet Altay <[email protected]>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I would like us to clarify the life cycle of Beam releases a
>>>>>>>>> little bit more for our users. I think we increased the predictability
>>>>>>>>> significantly by agreeing to a release cadence and kudos to everyone 
>>>>>>>>> on
>>>>>>>>> that. As a follow up to that I would like to address the following 
>>>>>>>>> problem:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> It is unclear for a user of Beam how long an existing version will
>>>>>>>>> be supported. And if it will be supported at all, what does that 
>>>>>>>>> support
>>>>>>>>> mean. (This is especially an important problem for users who would 
>>>>>>>>> like to
>>>>>>>>> use stable versions and care less about being on the cutting edge.)
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Our current state is:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> - With our agreed release cadence Beam makes 8 releases a year.
>>>>>>>>> - We have precedence for patching released versions for major
>>>>>>>>> issues.
>>>>>>>>> - Patching all existing releases at any point (even patching a
>>>>>>>>> year full of 8 releases) will be significant work.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> With the problem and the information, I have the following
>>>>>>>>> proposal to define the life cycle of existing releases.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> - Define what is a major issue with Beam. (For example this could
>>>>>>>>> be high severity security issues and high risk data integrity issues.)
>>>>>>>>> - Have a concept of long term support (LTS) releases. Designate
>>>>>>>>> every 4th release as an LTS release (~6 months).
>>>>>>>>> - Deprecate non-LTS releases the moment any new Beam release is
>>>>>>>>> out. Never patch non-LTS releases.
>>>>>>>>> - Deprecate LTS releases after a new LTS release comes out. Patch
>>>>>>>>> any LTS release within 1 year of its initial release date.
>>>>>>>>> - Add the above information to our website.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I think this proposal would give clear information to our users
>>>>>>>>> about what they can expect from us, and reduce our burden to maintain
>>>>>>>>> existing releases.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I also would like to state my assumptions:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> - Releases will happen not because of a policy but because there
>>>>>>>>> are volunteers willing to do it. This proposal is only a framework for
>>>>>>>>> those volunteers to take action. If Beam does not support its 
>>>>>>>>> releases,
>>>>>>>>> with or without a policy, we will reduce the trust of our users.
>>>>>>>>> - After we agreed to have a regular release cadence we started to
>>>>>>>>> see improvements towards having regular releases even though we did 
>>>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>>>> perfectly hit 6 weeks mark each time. I do expect the same here: an
>>>>>>>>> improvement in the direction of user happiness even if we cannot be 
>>>>>>>>> perfect.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> What do you think?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Ahmet
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> Got feedback? go/pabloem-feedback
>>>>>>>> <https://goto.google.com/pabloem-feedback>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>

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