Yes. Allow any project to release along
with the train as far as scheduling and the monster update site go. But create
a second tier of product quality components that would be released as part of the
EPP packages.
I guess in the end what I’m saying is
treat the EPP packages as real products. That would include quality criteria to
ensure that the products are successful when coming up against other “free”
offerings such as NetBeans and Visual Studio Express. It could be a good
mechanism to rally the projects behind raising the bar. And being products that
showcase Eclipse technology, it gives the community something to rally behind.
Not to mention it would be good fodder for the marketing guys, which given Ian’s
participation in EPP must have been one of the goals of this thing anyway.
I’m sure the debate will rage about these
Eclipse products competing against the Board members’ commercial
offerings, but they should be hopefully adding more value than what these
products would offer. And, not being in the know, I’m sure this debate is
happening anyway.
Doug Schaefer wrote:
I think we’ve started something with the
EPP packages. I’m seeing these get reviewed in the blogosphere, instead
of the individual projects. It may be interesting to focus on them as official
Eclipse “products” and have the bar set sufficiently high on them
to make them truly product quality. If you’re not in a package,
you’re not on the train. Of course that would require us to have product
management around these packages to make sure the best components are selected
for the market, and to work the requirements with the projects. Just a
thought…
I like that idea - make the release train build management open to all projects
that conform to minimal build requirements. Make the packages open to
projects that are part of the release train build management and also meet
certain quality criteria. (That is what you're suggesting, right?)