[ros-dev] New Release - how're you feeling?

[TwoTailedFox]

I've got a few small suggestions on how to get Users interested in ReactOS.

You don't need a new release to do that. In fact, as Alex as pointed
out, too many releases can be pointless if the user can see no
difference in their OS Usage over the previous version.

If you really want to make a new release, follow the Firefox Example,
and release it as "ReactOS 0.2.7 (Or even 0.2.6.5 if the 0.2.7 leap is
too large to warrent that) Developer Update". That way, the Users on
the outside will say, "Hmm, this is for developers only, I'm not one
of them, so I'll stick with 0.2.6". That's the Theory, anyway.

And I agree about the website. It's bland, outdated, and frankly,
ugly. The ReactOS phpBB forum was a good start at adding a more
user-friendly discussion  environment (Instead of that old comment
system... Ugh..), but the website frontpage needs a serious overhaul.

Another idea is a more user-orientated set of Blogs. Right now, I've
only come across Blogs from the developers that don't get updated
often, and most users tend to equate 'No Blog Updates = No Real
Progress'. If you can get users to post about what's going on in
ReactOS (So the developers can concentrate 100% on writing code), that
could be quite benificial.

About the Nightly Builds... Why not use Sourceforge to maintain a list
of Nighty Builds (Up to a month's worth), and have that linked to on
the ReactOS Site?

Just a few suggestions for ReactOS

-TTF

On 6/22/05, Alex Ionescu <ionucu at videotron.ca> wrote:
> Robert k. wrote:
> 
> >Hi,
> >let's put it this way: I have no problem in doing an intermediate release.
> >NEither idealistic nor by work. For my unterstanding, releases are time
> >driven, not feature driven.
> >So you're currently not feeling good for having a release build?
> >I asked for a release one month ago, but I have to admit, not inbetween,
> >anymore.
> >So if not more people are worrying, I think we should have a try ???
> >
> >
> >
> I still have a problem with a 0.2.7 release, especially as Filip and I
> are in the middle of changing the whole header system, which probably
> will add a couple of regressions, and still needs to be tested. I also
> have a problem because nothing has changed on the networking stage
> yet...I was hoping to have time to merge in my new Winsock DLLs... the
> reason I haven't yet is because Filip started working on the headers,
> and I couldn't be left out in the dust, and he needed my help with the
> NDK. Additionally, we still don't have anything new for the user. People
> are getting TIRED and they YAWN when they see another ReactOS release.
> Our changelogs are usually nothing more then "fixed bug X in function X,
> made function Y faster"... real users don't see any benefits. Look at
> 0.2.6, they only thing they noticed is that it sucked more then 0.2.5,
> because we didn't test it adequately. Users know how to wait for
> something; right now we've made them wait a long time for this new
> ReactOS released and promised them amazing things.. and what are we
> going to deliver? Some bugfixes they won't understand? This will just
> dilute the ReactOS releases and make them seem as meaningful as the
> Colored Terrorist Alert in the USA.
> 
> I think instead, what should be done is to finally get around to
> CHANGING OUR HOMEPAGE which is OUTDATED and confuses users with
> INCORRECT DATA. I'm sorry to rant about this again, but what is taking
> so long? I also logged in to our SF homepage and it's in a dire state. I
> don't think there is even any link to our main homepage. And more
> importantly, we really need to add a link to Nighlty Builds, so people
> that really want the latest can try it out. Do you see Firefox releasing
> every 3 months? Linux? No, they release when there is something to show
> (or a critical security issue).
> 
> Best regards,
> Alex Ionescu
> 
> 
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