Duration of beta period

First, let me say that our 7.2 release was a huge success.  It was of
very high quality and well received by the community.

I want to address a concern I have heard from many of you --- the long
duration of the beta period.  I think there are two major causes. 
First, the quality of our releases continues to increase, and quality
takes time.  We may get to a point where all we do is "polish" from
release to release.  Seriously, the time we spend polishing will
continue to increase because our quality continues to increase.

Second, I think there was a certain disorganization in our previous beta
period that greatly lengthened it.  We didn't set any beta deadlines, we
didn't have a web page showing the open beta items, and no one was
really pushing and rallying the troops to get the beta out.  I am going
to try to correct this by giving more direction to the group and
maintaining a beta open items web page where people can go to see the
current beta status.  I don't know if this will help, but I think it
should be attempted to see if more organization can help us be more
effective.  Obviously, we are mostly volunteers, but I think
organization can shorten future beta periods.

Future directions
-----------------
Here is my guess on our future timetable.  These dates are mostly
arbitrary, but I think it will help give people an idea of where we are
going.  I think we will remain in our current development mode through
May or even July.  At that time, we will enter beta in 7.3.  I will
create an open items web page for the beta, and we will try to set a
timetable for the end of beta.  We will not be tied to that date, but I
think setting a date will help us better focus our energies and get the
beta out the door faster.

My proposal is that we give this a try and see if it speeds up the beta
period, and makes it more enjoyable.

--  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610)
853-3000+  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill,
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