[release-notes] Some copy explaining Fedora's release cycle and life cycle of a release. Setting support expectation

Pete Travis immanetize at fedoraproject.org
Sat Aug 30 16:41:17 UTC 2014 

commit 6958e0c491f2c54afc74ef19addc82d6c62aaade
Author: Pete Travis <immanetize at fedoraproject.org>
Date:   Sat Aug 30 10:39:19 2014 -0600

    Some copy explaining Fedora's release cycle and life cycle of a release.
    Setting support expectations.
    Entities bump, with new entities &NEXTVER; and ;

 en-US/Release_Notes.ent |    2 +
 en-US/Release_Notes.xml |    3 +
 en-US/prerelease.xml    |  106 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 111 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
---
diff --git a/en-US/Release_Notes.ent b/en-US/Release_Notes.ent
index caa1165..a70fa15 100644
--- a/en-US/Release_Notes.ent
+++ b/en-US/Release_Notes.ent
@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@
 <!ENTITY BOOKID "release-notes">
 <!ENTITY YEAR "2014">
 <!ENTITY HOLDER "Fedora Project Contributors">
+<!ENTITY NEXTVER "22">
 <!ENTITY PRODVER "21">
 <!ENTITY PREVVER "20">
+<!ENTITY EOLVER "19">
 <!ENTITY KERNEL "3.15.0">
 
 <!ENTITY BZURL "<ulink url='https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=&PRODUCT;&amp;component=&BOOKID;'>http://bugzilla.redhat.com/</ulink>">
diff --git a/en-US/Release_Notes.xml b/en-US/Release_Notes.xml
index 2de8f27..e009349 100644
--- a/en-US/Release_Notes.xml
+++ b/en-US/Release_Notes.xml
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@
   <xi:include href="Section-Welcome.xml" 
 	      xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />
 
+  <xi:include href="pre-release.xml" 
+        xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />
+
   <!--<xi:include href="Section-Sysadmin.xml" 
 	      xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />-->
 
diff --git a/en-US/prerelease.xml b/en-US/prerelease.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce8f41a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/en-US/prerelease.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook EBNF Module V1.1CR1//EN"
+               "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/mathml/1.1CR1/dbmathml.dtd">
+<?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de/~werntges/home_t/proj/dbkcss102/wysiwygdocbook1.02/driver.css" type="text/css"?>
+
+<section id="prerelease-only">
+  <title>Fedora Pre-release editions</title>
+  <para>
+    The Fedora Project provides pre-release images for testing.  Thank you for helping to test the next release!  Your testing efforts improve the general availability release of Fedora for everyone.
+  </para>
+  <section id="release-cycle">
+    <title>About the release cycle</title>
+    <para>
+      Fedora generally follows a release cycle that produces two major releases each year.  A release receives support in the form of maintenance and security updates until the next version of Fedora is released.  A Fedora release will continue to receive updates until one month after the <emphasis>second</emphasis> following release.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      One month after Fedora &PRODVER; will mark the end of life for Fedora &EOLVER;.  Fedora &PRODVER; and Fedora &PREVVER; will be actively maintained until the release of Fedora &NEXTVER;, when Fedora &PREVVER; will reach the end of its release cycle.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      Rather than following a strict calendar, Fedora releases and pre-releases must meet <ulink url="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Release_Criteria" >release criteria</ulink> specific to each development milestone.  This practice means that the release dates may change, and ensures the quality of each release.  Your testing ensures that Alpha, Beta, and general availability releases meet these criteria.
+    </para>
+  </section>
+  <section id="lifecycle">
+    <title>Life Cycle of a Fedora release</title>
+    <para>
+      A Fedora release transitions through the following stages during its life cycle:
+    </para>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>Rawhide</title>
+      <para>
+        <ulink url="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Rawhide">Rawhide</ulink> is the development branch of Fedora.  It is used by testers and maintaners to test compatibility between packages, identify and correct problems with unreleased packages, and test updates too minor or major to go into a stable release.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <para>
+      You should not use Fedora Rawhide unless you are actively engaged in testing and development.  General availbility releases provide the latest stable version of software because of the work done by Fedora contributors in Rawhide.  Installing packages from Rawhide to get a newer version is not recommended.
+    </para>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>Branched</title>
+      <para>
+        The <ulink url="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Branched">Branched</ulink> repository is created from Rawhide during the beginning of the release cycle. It creates the basis for what will become the next version of Fedora, and is used to create pre-releases.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <note>
+      <title>About Freezes</title>
+      <para>
+        During this stage of the release cycle, the main Fedora repositories are frozen to allow predictable testing.  Package maintainers may still provide updates for their packages, but these updates are held in the <ulink url="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing">updates-testing</ulink> repository until the general release.  Only updates that resolve release critera related issues progress during this time.
+      </para>
+      <para>
+        Because of this freeze, and the subsequent release of the freeze after final release, you may have a large number of package updates available immediately after installation.  This is normal and expected.  For the best experience, you should update your system with any updates as they become available.
+      </para>
+    </note>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>Alpha</title>
+      <para>
+        Installation images and package builds are composed and tested from the Branched repository.  The Fedora QA team works first with <literal>Test Candidate</literal> images, then with <literal>Release Candidate</literal> images, to refine the product.  Once the appropriate criteria are met, an Alpha release is provided to the general public for feedback and testing.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>Beta</title>
+      <para>
+        After dealing with issues identified with the Alpha release, as well as additional release critera, a Beta release is made available to the public.  In most cases, the Beta release user experience will closely mirror the upcoming general availability release.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>GA</title>
+      <para>
+        The general availability release is made available to the public after rigorous testing and another set of more stringent release criteria are met.  At this time, packages held in <literal>updates-testing</literal> are moved into the general updates repository.  Other groups in the project make their work available at this time; websites are switched to the new version, announcements and press releases are sent, support volunteers are engaged, and more.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>Primary stable release</title>
+      <para>
+        Until the next version of Fedora goes through the previously mentioned stages to reach GA, for about six months, a Fedora release receives maintenance, security, and minor feature updates.  It is the primary product provided to Fedora users, and the most actively supported.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>Maintenance release</title>
+      <para>
+        When the subsequent version of Fedora makes GA, a Fedora release goes into maintenance status.  Packages in this release will still receive updates, expecially bugfix and security updates.  Feature updates often require newer versions of packages than the <ulink url="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy">Updates Policy</ulink> accomodates, so the newest versions of packages are not usually available to maintenance release users.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <formalpara>
+      <title>EOL</title>
+      <para>
+        After the second general availablity release, a version of Fedora becomes End Of Life (EOL) and is no longer supported.  Maintenance release users are provided with a one month period of continued updates, during which you should update your system to either the current maintenance release or latest stable release.
+      </para>
+    </formalpara>
+    <para>
+      EOL releases <emphasis>do not receive security updates</emphasis> or bug fixes.  Community support venues such as the <ulink url="https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/">Users mailing list</ulink> or <ulink url="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicating_and_getting_help#IRC_for_interactive_community_support">IRC channels</ulink> do not assist with issues on EOL systems.  You should update your system before it reaches EOL.
+    </para>
+        
+
+
+         
+
+    
+
+
+  </section>
+
+  points:
+  - the point is testing, not preview
+  - work with QA, here's how
+  - how to file a bug
+  - release notes are WIP, here's where
+

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