[tdf-announce] Announcing a new beta release

Today we are announcing the fifth beta release of LibreOffice 3.4.

In a slight change of communication strategy for our releases, from now 
on we will use this mailing list only for announcements of final and 
stable versions.

LibreOffice 3.4 Beta 5 is being announced on projects, development and 
localization mailing lists, in order to allow volunteers to perform the 
QA process. Also, the beta has been pre-announced on the community 
mailing lists for a first round of QA tests, to avoid the quality 
problems of the earlier 3.4 betas.

We feel that we need to clarify a few points here:

1. LibreOffice is the result of a collaborative development effort, and 
adopts a time based release model (such as other collaborative 
development projects like GNOME and KDE). This is rather different from 
the past at OOo, where most of the development was happening inside a 
closed group, and the time based release model frequently slipped.

2. LibreOffice is free software, and is based on free tools. We are 
working to improve the day-to-day quality of our pre-release builds for 
Windows, with an ongoing migration to GNU Make as a first step to more 
reliable cross-compilations from Linux to Windows . Our aim, over time, 
is to make it easy to build releases for LibreOffice for anyone with 
some time and a PC. This is rather different from the past at OOo, where 
release builds came from a proprietary build environment run by a small 
team of build engineers.

3. Understanding the time based release model is critical to selecting 
the right release of LibreOffice for each situation:

3.1. For the most conservative users, we recommend a commercially 
supported version, which enables you to indirectly support the project's 
development. Such stable versions will typically be based on a point 
release, such as LibreOffice 3.3.2 today;

3.2. For those interested in the bleeding edge, who want to enjoy new 
features and fixes, we recommend LibreOffice 3.4.0, release candidates, 
betas or even nightly builds, which enable a participation in the 
development, evaluation and quality control process;

3.3. Of course, as the 3.4 series matures, we will reach a point where 
we will recommend a 3.4.x release as being suitable even for the most 
conservative users.

This model should be familiar to many, from other Free Software 
projects, with vendors providing distinctive releases of the underlying 
software.

All this said, if you want to help us in building a more stable 
LibreOffice 3.4, you are kindly invited to join the projects, 
development and/or localization mailing lists and contribute to the process.

You can find the necessary information at the following links:
http://www.mail-archive.com/projects@libreoffice.org/info.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/libreoffice@lists.freedesktop.org/info.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/l10n@libreoffice.org/info.html

Together, we are cleaning up the code-base, improving our build and 
release process, and adding new features, with the pace of improvement 
accelerating. It is indeed a rewarding journey for all those who have 
decided to be part of it.

--
Italo Vignoli - The Document Foundation
email italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org
phone +39.348.5653829 - VoIP +39.02.320621813
skype italovignoli - italo.vignoli@gmail.com

--
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to announce+help@documentfoundation.org
List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/announce/