Re: critical issues

[David Kastrup]

Han-Wen Nienhuys <address@hidden> writes:

> On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 10:36 AM, Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> If we refuse thinking about stable releases by taking GUB as an
>>> excuse, the grand next stable release that will benefit users of
>>> many operating systems is likely to fall in the class "too little,
>>> too late".
>>
>> I second David.  Given that we develop within a GNU environment, bugs
>> specific to Windows and Mac shouldn't prevent stable releases.  I can
>> even imagine that well announced release candidates for a new stable
>> version attracts developers to help fix issues with problematic
>> platforms.
>
> From a support perspective, not releasing the windows and mac versions
> at the same time is problematic.  Many questions and bugreports that
> could be answered with "upgrade to the latest version" all of a sudden
> start depending on the platform that the user is using. Also, it makes
> it more difficult to get users to pay for work, since users won't pay
> if you don't release the work to their platform

Which is exactly the situation that we find ourselves in already.

> I fully sympathize with the desire to junk Mac and Windows for being a
> pains in the asses to develop for, but they are the platforms where
> the majority of the users are. We (Jan and I) made a conscious
> decision that having more users is better for lilypond than saving
> some developer resources over not distributing windows/mac binaries.

Sure, but we are not talking about junking Mac and Windows, but about
junking using them as a cheap excuse for losing sight of stable release
criteria altogether.

-- 
David Kastrup