19 Dec
2011
19 Dec
'11
2:15 p.m.
Hi!
I've been against releasing in this current state mainly because the bad PR related to
this action.
In one pan of the scales we have the "Bad PR because releasing with a noticeable
bug", in the other pan "Bad PR because not releasing since more than X months
ago".
Not releasing affects the PR but also the stability/compatibility of the OS since just
during the release time intensive app testings are performed.
Since ReactOS devs have been trying to fix the issue, with no results, the "X"
factor, which is now 8, can grow to "sine die".
Also those who were able to test ReactOS, as the Total Commander developer, have suggested
to release because the "great performance and stability of current trunk compared to
0.3.13"
Because all of these, I am agree with releasing but just, and only just, if the next
actions are done in order to mitigate the bad PR impact that we will suffer for sure:
1)Adding a message,during 1st stage or before running 2nd stage, warning the user that a
known bug is present which can appear when copying mshtml file and pointing him to
www.reactos.org to find a solution:
"This release is known to rise a potential bug due to our MM extensive rewrite. If
the installation stucks in mshtml or later, please visit www.reactos.org, there you will
find several ways to solve it. The ReactOS Team is working to have the MM ready as soon as
possible.This rewrite is needed to ensure the best compatibility and performance. Sorry
for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience. "(or similar)
2)Adding an "Are you suffering the MSHTML bug?" banner in the frontpage which
redirects to a Wiki page explaining the ways to circumvent the issue and politely asking
for Debug Logs.
3)Adding a massive DPRINTing in the MM and friends to find a clue about why MM is going
nuts.
After releasing:
4)Working actively in the MM issue. If in 3 months there is no solution, then we should
seriously freeze the development trunk.Sadly.
5)The revision that definitly fix the issue will be branched, tested and fastly released
as "0.4.0 RC". 0.PI must be removed asap.
6)The next official release after "0.4.0 RC" will be "0.4.0" after
fixing any potential regression.
All these actions have a reason related to our public image, PR impact and community
motivation. If anyone has a doubt about any of them, I'll be glad of answering them.
If these conditions are not accepted then I'd be totally against releasing 0.3.14.
Víctor