[ Thanks to Fernando
Correa for this link. ]
“OLinux: How is the development coordinated?
What kynd of tests do you do before the improvment releasing?”
“Tim Boudreau: Being a fairly new
open-source project, we are still defining the release process for
NetBeans. It’s important to distinguish here between NetBeans
releases and Sun’s Forte for Java distribution of the IDE. NetBeans
3.1 will be released on netbeans.org sometime in the next few
weeks, and will include features that will not appear in Forte for
Java for another six months.“
“When setting up the NetBeans.org site, we did not want to
create a lot of structure or process arbitrarily, so we only
defined those things (like how to get involved in the project) that
absolutely needed to be defined. This is a philosophical approach –
wherever you create process, you create perverse incentives. So the
better solution is, when something needs to be done, someone
volunteers to handle it, and you then look at the successes and
failures that happen, and use that as the model (or anti-model) for
the next time.”
“So when it became apparent that it was a good time to do a
release, a couple of developers stepped up to the plate, started a
discussion on the development mailing list about how to go forward
with it, and it is happening. There is a parallel discussion
happening about the roadmap for the next release. So the next one
will probably have a somewhat different feel and process – but that
is exactly what should happen: an evolution.”