Release schedule for 0.17.0 #12624

1. 
   laanwj commented at 9:30 PM on March 6, 2018: member

   Here is a proposed release schedule for 0.17.0, the next major release of Bitcoin Core. Like for previous major releases I've aimed for a release 6 months after the last (#11449).

   2018-07-02
   -----------
   - Open Transifex translations for 0.17
   - Soft translation string freeze (no large or unnecessary string changes until release)
   - Finalize and close translations for 0.15
   
   2018-07-23
   -----------
   - Feature freeze (bug fixes only until release)
   - Translation string freeze (no more source language changes until release)
   
   2018-08-13
   -----------
   - Split off `0.17` branch from `master`
   - Start RC cycle, tag and release `0.17.0rc1`
   - Start merging for 0.18 on master branch
   
   2018-09-08
   -----------
   - Release 0.17.0 final (aim)
   

   If any specific dates or timeframes are a problem for you, let me know.

2. laanwj added the label good first issue on Mar 6, 2018
3. laanwj added this to the milestone 0.17.0 on Mar 6, 2018
4. 
   AlexGoldovsky commented at 4:46 PM on March 15, 2018: none

   @laanwj Excuse me, but, What exactly is a good first issue about this? I'm looking for an issue to start with, but I don't get what should be done here.

5. 
   laanwj commented at 5:16 PM on March 15, 2018: member

   @AlexGoldovsky If you plan on submitting any PRs, it's good to know about the upcoming release schedule.

6. 
   thijstriemstra commented at 12:13 AM on March 16, 2018: none

   Excuse me, but, What exactly is a good first issue about this?

   Was thinking the same; sounded like being a release manager as first issue/task would be good.

7. 
   fanquake commented at 1:54 AM on March 16, 2018: member

   @thijstriemstra The "good first issue" label was originally added to release milestones as a bit of "tongue in cheek", however as @laanwj has pointed out, if new contributors are filtering for issues using that label, they will now also see the current release schedule.

8. 
   laanwj commented at 9:50 AM on March 16, 2018: member

   Right - it's a good first issue to read.

9. 
   flack commented at 7:02 PM on April 8, 2018: contributor

   This discussion about "good first issue" happens on every single one of these release schedule tickets. Maybe it's time to admit defeat and remove it? If I'm a new contributor looking at "good first issues", I'm looking for something to work on. If I want to know when the next release happens, I go to https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/milestones

   Thinking a bit further, github milestones support both a due date and a description, so why not use those? The release schedule ticket is not really actionable anyways, so it might be better to simply use the facilities provided by the platform

10. 
    laanwj commented at 7:23 PM on April 8, 2018: member

    Just what we were waiting for, a new contributor telling us how to do things. Really, you could have saved yourself the time.

    On Sun, Apr 8, 2018, 21:02 flack notifications@github.com wrote:

    This discussion about "good first issue" happens on every single one of these release schedule tickets. Maybe it's time to admit defeat and remove it? If I'm a new contributor looking at "good first issues", I'm looking for something to work on. If I want to know when the next release happens, I go to https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/milestones

    Thinking a bit further, github milestones support both a due date and a description, so why not use those? The release schedule ticket is not really actionable anyways, so it might be better to simply use the facilities provided by the platform

    — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/12624#issuecomment-379573943, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAHutnnQlO56IzNh15ECKDLYbjJdU-tmks5tml7ZgaJpZM4SfdtH .

11. 
    flack commented at 8:09 PM on April 8, 2018: contributor

    Sorry, I didn't mean to sound bossy or anything. But seeing how good first issue is supposed to be for new contributors, I thought maybe an outsider's perspective might be helpful. Obviously, do what you think is best, I just find it silly that literally on each of these release tickets it's the same discussion

12. 
    laanwj commented at 12:21 AM on April 9, 2018: member

    Sorry, was a bit grumpy last night and took it out on you. There's a lot of hostile people in this space but you're not one of them and the last thing I want is to chase away new contributors. So yeah I guess, thanks for the input.

    As for the "due date" with milestones we could put something there, but it's not clear which date. Probably the feature freeze date is most useful, as it is the intent for developers to target that.

13. 
    flack commented at 10:09 PM on April 13, 2018: contributor

    One small (and hopefully uncontroversial) change that could be made would be to link this ticket from the milestone's description (i.e. just put in something like "see #12624 for proposed schedule"). It would improve discoverability and you could still keep the tag if you really want to :-)

14. 
    mmortal03 commented at 1:47 PM on October 8, 2018: none

    Also, shouldn't this one be closed now that 0.17.0 was released?

15. MarcoFalke closed this on Oct 9, 2018

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16. MarcoFalke locked this on Dec 16, 2021

Milestone
0.17.0