Hi Florain---

Florian Effenberger wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> the following came in from Peter Wilkins, [email protected], who
> is *not* subscribed to these lists (so please don't forget the Cc ;-)
> 
> I'm just forwarding it to you, can cling in to discussion after my
> vacation.
> 
> Florian
> 
> 
> 
>> I have been struggling with various bugs in OOo 3.1 relating to
>> unprovoked
>> crashes, crashes related to spell-check and some other idiosyncrasies...
>>
>> When I report these, I receive an auto-response from OOo inviting me
>> to try-out
>> one of the Dev Builds ... but it is difficult or impossible for me to
>> evaluate the
>> status and stability of the various builds out there.


hmmmm...I don't think trying a dev-build should even be a suggestion for
these kinds of issues...maybe we should change this???? I can certainly
understand why Peter would be confused and frustrated. Thoughts?


>>
>> I have worked in the IT sector for over 25 years, so I would not
>> expect to be
>> puzzled by such things, but I am.  If I am, then you can assume that
>> the wider
>> public is completely baffled by the bewildering choices.
>>
>> I realize that these builds are primarily targeted at the audience of
>> open source
>> programmers who are intimately aware of the day-to-day developments,
>> but the
>> public and even other IT professionals such as myself are not.
>>
>> If it is the goal of OOo to become an accepted and trusted mainstream
>> alternative to Microsoft Office, then it is essential that there is a
>> more cogent and
>> user-friendly public front-end to the Dev Builds pages.
>>
>> I do not advocate any changes to what the programmers have access to, but
>> quite frankly there is too much information and too many different builds
>> available to the general user and too little qualitative information
>> about each
>> build.
>>
>> I generally like the first landing page for Dev Builds:
>>
>>           http://download.openoffice.org/next/?cid=927698
>>
>> However, even here, there is precious little qualitative narrative to
>> guide visitors
>> as to what the two offered downloads actually are, and some statements
>> about
>> their level of progression since the previous formal release and ... most
>> importantly ... there is NO indication how soon the next stable update is
>> expected to emerge.  I don't think it is necessary to make binding
>> commitments
>> as to how this will unfold, but it should be possible to estimate by
>> weeks or
>> months when the next release is expected.
>>
>> Of course some kind of graphical road map would be a great addition.
>>
>> Of the two offered most recent stable versions offered on the above page:
>>
>>    Download the most recent OOo-Dev 3.2.0 build (codeline OOO320)
>>    Click to start downloading OOO320_m6 for Windows (US English)
>>
>>    Download the most recent OOo-Dev 3.x build (codeline DEV300)
>>    Click to start downloading DEV300_m65 for Windows (US English)
>>
>> It is not at all clear what 3.x refers to.  Is this 3.1.x or is this
>> something beyond
>> 3.2.0?!?  I kind of suspect it is the former, but then I see
>> DEV300_m65, which
>> makes me think it is 3.0.x ... (as compared to OOO320_m6, which is
>> clearly 3.2)
>> ... this is not at all clear.
>>
>> Again, if I am not sure, you can be sure that most mortals would be
>> confused.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Peter Wilkins
> 
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