[IMPORTANT] Fedora 21 Schedule Change

[Stephen Gallagher]

== tl;dr Version ==

We are accelerating the Fedora 21 schedule so that we will enter Final
Freeze one week earlier than previously described on the schedule
page[1]. This means that all fixes intended for inclusion in the Fedora
21 release must be submitted for the stable repository no later than
November 17th (so that we have time to do the updates push and build the
Release Candidate on November 18th). The Final Release date will remain
at December 9th. This essentially means that we are implementing a
planned two-week Final Freeze instead of the traditional one-week
freeze.


== Why are we doing this? ==

The Fedora 21 cycle has run considerably beyond its original deadline,
primarily due to the massive number of changes that we have been
implementing this time around (in particular, the shift to producing
three top-tier Products has had a significant impact). Because of the
schedule adjustments that took place during the Alpha and Beta phases,
we are now looking at an early December release for Fedora 21.

With the Final Release being so close to the December holidays, any
delay that occurs at this point puts Fedora at real danger of slipping
out of 2014 entirely. To minimize this risk, FESCo has decided (with QA
and rel-eng input), that we are going to make a one-time modification to
our schedule. The historic cause of slips has been that the time between
the start of Freeze and the completion of the release validation has
never left enough room in the schedule to fix any blocker issues that
come up. By moving up the Freeze, we hope to be able to identify these
blockers faster and maintain our curernt planned release date.

We are aware that shortening a schedule puts added strain on our
developers, which is why we generally do not do so except at great
reluctance. However, the Fedora Updates Policy[2] describes the period
between Beta and Final releases thusly: "The branched tree should now be
stabilized and prepared for release. Major changes should be avoided
during this period." So the shorter time-frame should already be
dedicated only to addressing bug-fixes. Most of these can be handled
with a release-day update if needed; those that are truly release-
blocking will remain so (and will be allowed to be built into the
release candidates during the freeze).


[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/21/Schedule
[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Beta_to_Pre_Release
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