jclouds has a regular minor release cadence of 6-8 weeks, instituted in the pre-ASF 1.5 release series. This benefits our users by giving them timely bug fixes and provides a mechanism to deliver minor feature additions. Most users consume only release versions and do use snapshots or package their own releases.
I would like to propose a regular *major* release cadence. Presently jclouds has no official major release policy, seemingly driven by major feature additions. Contributors become impatient waiting for master to mature into the release branch and backport major features, requiring extra effort and potentially causing regressions to the stable branch. Lack of major releases also limits our ability to change APIs and delays upgrades of dependencies, for example stranding users on Guava 15[1]. I propose four potential major release cadences: 6 weeks, i.e., no minor releases, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. From my experience 3 or 6 months seems about right, but would like feedback from other developers. Generally the predictability of releases holds more importance to me than the specific interval. Thoughts? [1] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JCLOUDS-427 -- Andrew Gaul http://gaul.org/
