KDE alpha 1 packages for Fedora?

[Kevin Kofler]

Laurent Rineau <laurent.rineau__fedora_extras <at> normalesup.org> writes:
> > Do we really want KDE 4 packaged like that in Fedora 8? May 24 + 6 months =
> > November 24, that's a month after the planned KDE 4.0 release (October 23).
> > Thus I suggest upgrading all of KDE to the alphas in Rawhide as soon as
> > possible after Rawhide opens for F8
> 
> Let wait and see if the KDE project can release KDE-4.0 in time.

We can't afford to wait, we need to get the development versions into Rawhide 
ASAP to get it in shape, and then it will be way too late to revert everything 
without causing a gigantic mess.

If we compare the risks, I think shipping a RC which has been tested for months 
in Rawhide is a much less scary prospect than deciding on importing a release 
at the last minute with no prior testing. And for the record, I think shipping 
3.5 when 4.0 will be out with all the improvements (including 
standards-compliance, e.g. icon naming spec and shared-mime-info) and when Qt 3 
will be completely discontinued by Trolltech (EOL is July 1st, 2007) and when 
the next opportunity means shipping 4.0 7 months late, when all the other 
normally slower-moving distros will already have it, is worse than both of 
these prospects.

> I would not like F8 ship a release candidate of KDE4. The KDE desktop is the 
> central part of the KDE spin of Fedora. It has to be stable.

And the GNOME desktop is the central part of the GNOME spin, yet the GNOME 
people have already shipped a RC (with some packages which had few changes from 
RC to final upgraded to the final at the last minute) once. And the kernel is 
central to the entire distribution, yet it has shipped in RC state more than 
once. As long as it has been properly tested in Rawhide, it should not be a 
problem. And don't forget that that's just a worst-case analysis, if F8 is 
going to use the same 6-month schedule as the other versions, we have an entire 
month of slack time. Even more if it slips, which is likely to happen 
considering Fedora's release history. ;-)

And besides, that's what updates are for. If the Fedora release ships an RC, 
that doesn't mean we won't have the final in updates.

        Kevin Kofler