MAR
16
2006

The Tale of Fixed Release Schedules

Once upon a time there were some dwarfs who wandered around the earth and told everyone who liked to hear that they would produce a desktop including the distribution of their handcraft every sixth months. And some people believed them and the dwarfs' business grew a bit. But the dwarfs wanted to grow further and so they continued to praise themselves as the high lords of fixed release schedules - and it worked some times somehow. People who had an own project or business to place on the desktop started to trust the dwarfs' telling. The dwarfs were happy and built bigger and bigger furniture...

But on one dark day the dwarfs couldn't deliver anymore in time, their business outgrew them. Sad for the people who were dumb to trust the promises and made themselves dependent on a delivery in time. Let us welcome the dwarfs in the reality and next time you hear them talking remember The Tale of Fixed Release Schedules.

Comments

> The release was not delayed for not being complete.

"Complete" as in tested, certified, localized and polished? The points which led to the delay?

> It is infact the first release that has to be supported for 5 years.

So? That or the reasons why it was delayed doesn't matter at all for people who depend on the promised release date. Canonical's PR department can tell what pushed forward reasonings it wants now, its previous claims are void.

> You are comparing apples to oranges with OpenSuse and Fedora...

I guess you know that they both are the base of the business products and affect their schedules. Take the links only as examples for "the reality".

> What was your point again?

False promises on deliver dates. Which had to fail sooner or later as likely everyone knows who has run some larger software projects.


By at Sat, 03/18/2006 - 19:53

Pages