On synchronized releases

The Midgard Project switched to a new synchronized release model with the 8.09 "Ragnaroek LTS" release. Synchronized release model means that a major release of Midgard will happen every six months, tuned to be part of the larger Linux software ecosystem as described by Mark Shuttleworth:

WHAT IF you knew that the next long-term supported releases of Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat and Novell Linux would all have the same major versions of kernel, GCC, X, GNOME, KDE, OO.o and Mozilla. Would that make a major difference for you? I’m willing to bet not - that from a customer view, folks who prefer X will still prefer X. A person who prefers Red Hat will stick with Red Hat. But from a developer view, would that make it easier to collaborate? Dramatically so.

Another member of the audience came up to talk about the fashion industry. That’s also converged on a highly coordinated model - fabrics and technologies “release” first, then designers introduce their work simultaneously at fashion shows around the world. “Spring 2009″ sees new collections from all the major houses, many re-using similar ideas or components. That hasn’t hurt their industry, rather it helps to build awareness amongst the potential audience.

The same model has been employed very successfully by major projects like GNOME, Eclipse and the Ubuntu distribution. As Midgard relies on many GNOME technologies, being in the same release cycle with them helps our development immensely, and makes Midgard more easy to install because we have a more stable set of dependencies.

This coming weekend Midgard developers will convene in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland to discuss the plans for the next release, 9.03 "Vinland", the first release to be fully legacy free.

The Coccinella IM project which also utilizes the synchronized release model has posted a list of release synchronicity myths and facts.