F22 blocker/freeze exception review: on-list? in-bug? special meeting?

[Kevin Kofler]

Adam Williamson wrote:
> desktop updates, we should do it as soon as possible. I really wish we
> could somehow stop having these situations where the desktop teams
> want to push big updates right after freeze points, as it seems to
> keep happening, but for right now we need to make a decision.

IMHO, this points out two things that are wrong with the freeze process:

• Why is the decision whether to take updates to packages only affecting a
  given desktop environment not up to that desktop environment's
  maintainers? Those KF5 changes are basically only going to affect our
  spin. (Well, there's one or two "Labs" spins derived from the KDE spin,
  but those aren't even release-blocking.) Likewise, the GNOME megaupdate
  basically only affects Workstation. I see the need for a freeze process
  for core shared components, but for the spins*, IMHO, both the decision
  what packages to take and the go/no-go call should be up to the respective
  spin* maintainers. (That also means that the complex desktop criteria
  could be dropped entirely (replaced by an executive decision by the spin*
  maintainer) or moved to the individual spin*'s area, freeing you from the
  burden of maintaining them.) And if that means we have to wait for a few
  days for GNOME/Workstation to be ready or the other way round, so be it,
  it is not going to kill anybody. (Or if that really is a problem for some
  people, we could start looking into per-spin* releases. But I don't see
  the need there.)

  * … When I say "spins", I mean both Products/Flavors and Spins. (I still
      do not approve of the arbitrary distinction between first-class and
      second-class spins, and no such distinction is needed in this context
      for sure.)

• We have exactly 2 release-blocking desktops. If both want to get some
  important update in right after the freeze, why can't we just delay the
  freeze (and accordingly, the release), by a week? I think some more
  flexibility would really help us there.

        Kevin Kofler