KDE plans for the squeeze cycle

[Sune Vuorela]

Hi

In our response, I think we should really avoid mentioning at all a possible 
freeze in december 2009, as this is not what we are asked about.
We are asked about what we would like to see in a release and when we can get 
that.

So:
> * Which major upstream releases of KDE are expected in the next two
>   years? Which of those are material for Debian stable, which might be a bit
>   flaky?

KDE is currently releasing new feature versions in january and july, but they 
are also discussing their release management methods and plans.

We would expect KDE 4.4.0 in end of January 2010 and KDE 4.5.0 in end of July 
2010.

Each month after this, there is new bugfix releases of the latest version, at 
least until .3, and maybe a bit longer for .4. I don't think they have gotten 
to a .5 point release yet.

the .0 release has with 4.1.0 and 4.2.0 been a bit flaky. 4.3.0 has been a bit 
better in this regard, but we would still like to ship something like a .2 
release.

The release schedules of Qt is also relevant.  Qt4.6 is expected to arrive 
around christmas, and has some new nice features, but from a release point of 
view, it is the first release that is expected to build correctly  with gcc 
4.4.

> * How much time do you usually need from a new upstream release of KDE
>   to a stable Debian package in unstable?

KDE releases the tarballs to packagers one week before release, so packagers 
have time to prepare the packaging. We usually get something ready (with the 
4.x releases) for release day, sometimes with some bugs, sometimes not. These 
bugs are usually weeded out during a week or two after this.

For point releases, which is only bugfix releases, we usually get the 
packaging fully right at first upload, which happens around release day.


> * How many "big" transitions will the upcoming changes cause? When should 
those
>   happen? Can we do something to make them easier

A removal-transition of arts would be nice, but requires a package name change 
of kdelibs4c2a, as kdelibs4c2a changes ABI without arts.

Of each new upstream release (4.x), the kde4libs source package will probably 
have to break: kdebase-workspace-bin ( << 4.x), which generates a small mess, 
but nothing major is expected.

A .la file removal transition should be considered carefully regarding to apps 
using kde3 kdelibs.


If we could plan the Debian release cycle completely after what would be good 
for KDE, squeeze will freeze shortly after KDE 4.5.0 is uploaded to Debian 
(July 2010) and the .1 and .2 and .3 releases will be allowed into squeeze. 
Squeeze will release in November or December 2010. 

This will give us a whole lot of interesting features and also some of the 
tricky kmail bugs that only can be solved by a almost full rewrite will have 
happened, and KDE will have the possibility to take advantage of the new 
things in Qt4.6, and we will reach Qt4.6.2 or something like that on the Qt 
side.
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