[TYPO3-core] Changing the release cycle

[Xavier Perseguers]

Hi François and Georg,

> before talking about any 7.0 or 6.4 it would be more important to talk
> about a possible roadmap. It doesn't really make sense to stress some
> users with a 7.0 and end of a 6.x branch if we don't yet even know what
> we wanna achieve ;)

Yes, I like the idea of having major and minor releases as you suggested
but I dislike the stress of having a new major release every year.

Perhaps not totally easy to manage at first but what about an alternate
solution:

- We have minor releases every 6 months (6.1, 6.2, 6.3, ...)
- In parallel, we develop bigger changes such as TCA refactoring, or
whatever on the future 7.0 (or 8 after 7 is out) branch. Very important
here is not to have 100's of major changes, only 1-2 that we put to an
end in a reasonable amount of time
- We backport "minor" enhancements as you suggested for the next minor
release, making it possible to still have "enhancements" in the minor
branches
- When we are "ready enough" with a bigger change, we announce that the
next release won't be the 6.x but the 7.0, may it be in either of the
available "minor slots".

Of course, a new major release should not be released in less than 1
year since the last major release, otherwise it should become a minor
release (and thus be more compatible as well).

I'd say that it would give everybody less stress.

Cheers

-- 
Xavier Perseguers
Release Manager TYPO3 4.6

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