Re: 8.5 release timetable, again

Josh Berkus wrote:
> There's some very good reasons for the health of the project to have
> specific release dates and stick to them.

Help me understand why?

The Linux kernel seems to do fine with a "when it is ready" cycle,
where some releases(2.6.24) take twice the time of others(2.6.28)[1,2].
I imagine it has similar stability and lack-of-data-loss requirements
as postgres does.

I understand why commercial packagers like Ubuntu - especially public
ones like Novell and Red Hat who have to forecast earnings - want to
schedule their releases.

And I can imagine they'd appreciate it if project releases aren't
too close to their release schedules (if postgres releases right
after they release they suffer from not having the current version;
if postgres releases just before, they have limited testing time).

[1] http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php
[2] http://fblinux.freebase.com/view/base/fblinux/views/linux_kernel_release

> So, with that in mind: what is your statement on three versus four
> commitfests? Does it make a difference to you?