On Sep 5, 12:30am, "Wouter Schoot" wrote:
} Hi ck74 (and Jeff in CC)
} 
} > It would be helpfull, because if there is only a month or less, i plan to
} > wait for official iso releases.

     As you can probably tell from the web page commits and
documentation commits, we're ramping up for it.  However, I don't have
any dates at this moment (and, even if I did it wouldn't be my place to
say since I'm not part of Release Engineering).

} I don't think that a release will be there within a month; Release
} Candidates however may be more realistic.

     It could in theory be there in a month.  That would be pretty much
the shortest timeframe though.  Certainly, I expect to see at least RC1
and maybe RC2 depending on how things go.

} On the "NetBSD 4 branch release engineering" site
} (http://www.netbsd.org/releng/releng-4.html), it states that the branch is
} still open for pullups. As far as I know, it will be closed for pullups as
} soon as the release candidate process starts. Jeff stated that "we now

     It will remain open until it is deprecated, which will be sometime
after NetBSD 6.0 is released.  During the RC process, critical fixes,
security fixes, installation fixes, and documentation fixes may all get
pulled up.  The Release Engineering team will decide what fixes to
pullup during the RC process and what to hold for after the release.
If too many things get pulled up, we would go to RC2, or possibly, but
unlikely, back to Beta3.

} 2) NetBSD is released when it's "done". This also means that there may be
} no huge problems left, found in the BETAs or RCs. When there are such
} errors found, the release is usually postponed until there's a fix.

     Like all other problems larger then "Hello, World", NetBSD is
pretty much guaranteed to have bugs.  Certainly, we try to eliminate as
many as we can before the release, but at some point, the decision will
be made to move forward.  In some cases, this may mean a major bug that
is very difficult to fix, remains.  However, hopefully not.

} This being said, I of course ask myself the same question as you are.
} Being patient isn't a real problem for me, but of course, I'd like to see
} NetBSD 4 hit the shelfs too.
} 
} Further more, participating as a volunteer in a project like NetBSD
} doesn't mean that you can do just whatever you want whenever you want.
} When you dedicate yourself to such project, you need to keep your
} customers happy too in a way.

     In a way.  But, volunteers generally only work on things they find
interesting, which means that people do what they want for the most
part.  Of course, some will do the thankless tasks, such as release
engineering, writing security advisories, fixing PRs, etc.  Of course,
we do realise that we need to keep customers reasonably happy as well.

} Concluding, I think it would be a great thing if the NetBSD board would
} give us an update on the release process. The announce mailinglist has

     The board has nothing to do with it.  The board mainly concerns
itself with administrative/legal tasks, such as receiving developer
agreements, handling requests to use the trademark, etc.  This is
basically Release Engineering's area, with oversite by Core.  See
http://www.NetBSD.org/Foundation/ for more information on the structure
of The NetBSD Foundation.

}-- End of excerpt from "Wouter Schoot"