Update: 16 May <== link, clicky
A few people have asked about a "Release Schedule" for Minion. While I still want to maintain that I
cannot make any guarantees on dates given that issues can pop up anywhere, I can give some information about what's going on.
Here's what
must be completed before it can enter beta:
- Verify that Java's doPrivileged() calls are releasing taints correctly - Est 2h - Complete
- Implement addon ignoring (the current popup menu is simply a placeholder) - Est 12h - Complete
- Implement login for premium users (the current login is simply a placeholder) - Est 8h - Complete
- Allow for saving of security permissions of modules so that the user is not asked to verify permissions on every login - Est 8h - Complete
I add another 8h for reserve time and estimate 8h per day. That's a total of 42 hours or 6 days (rounded up). So we'll estimate a week.
Once that has been done, I want the guys involved in alpha to give it a solid week of testing to verify there aren't any critical issues prior to release. On that schedule, we're looking at about 2 weeks right now.
Here are upcoming risks:
- Over the next few days I will be spending a bit extra personal time with family that is over to visit. To offset this, I will also have a lot of travel time during which I can work.
- I start an internship on May 18, and the days leading up to that will likely be relatively packed with organizing things. Fortunately, this is during the time that others will be doing testing.
So, if all goes smoothly, I'm trying to push out a beta release on the
17th of May. If anything changes for that, it will be posted here. Similarly, I will be posting daily updates regarding its progress in an effort to keep everyone informed.
Post-beta release, we are going to go through several phases to get to a release product:
- 17 May 2009 - Beta - Our bug tracker for the software will be opened up and the software will be available to anyone whom wishes to risk their computer exploding. At this point the software should be relatively safe, but bugs should be anticipated.
- 31 May 2009 - Beta 2 - At this point it is expected that critical bugs for all OSes should be fixed. This phase will be advertised as a "stable beta" where we hope to draw in a wider audience to isolate less frequent issues. During this time, usability issues and API issues should be addressed.
- 28 June 2009 - Release Candidate - The release candidate client should have no known bugs. Any known bugs should be reported immediately to avoid them being put into release. This phase will operate in code freeze mode. No new features or usability improvements will be given attention until post-release. Only bugs will be acted upon at this point.
- 12 July 2009 - Release - The release will mark the first release-quality version. It is anticipated that this version will be very stable and usable by a global audience without fear of things going wrong. Post-release, new features and usability improvements will be given attention once again. The roadmap for resolving those issues will be generated at some point after release.
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