Proposed release criteria revisions

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 15:14:41 +0000,
  "\"Jóhann B. Guðmundsson\"" <johannbg at gmail.com> wrote:
> ( Rawhide users/reporters should know it's broken in the first place and 
> provide feedback )

By alpha we are working with 'branched' not 'rawhide'. The point remains
valid, but using the wrong name for it might cause confusion.

> Shipping "Alpha/Beta" is only a marketing gimmick anyway and it outdated 
> the day we finally ship that stuff..

It is a useful marketing gimmick. It helps us get more widespread testing.

> If I'm not mistaken the the feature process entirely optional so tying 
> the "testing" of features into our release cycle so closely does not 
> make any sense to be perhaps someone is willing to refresh my memory by 
> explaining it to me why we did that in the first place?

Optional in what sense? If they don't get completed we can drop them, but
in order for at least some of them to get completed, testing is needed.
Alpha (and in some cases test days) provides a way to get help testing.