Simple Machines forms as an NPO

[Arantor]

I haven't seen any posts or reports indicating it anywhere else

There is one security related matter on the tracker, actually, which I put there weeks ago. It's not an exploit, nor is it a vulnerability, in of itself, but hey, it certainly formed part of the basis for one and prevented a solid patch against the attacks of earlier this year.

[robinson01]

that is a very great news and you have a very great team..keep it up..

[James.]

The answer is quite simple, there won't be an RC6. The next release will be SMF 2.0 Final/Gold.

Aren't versions supposed to be launched as an RC indefinitely, an be declared fit for launch and becoming a final when no more bugs are discovered after a certain time of thorough search? I'm asking this because I've noticed this is the way an RC is declared final in the release cycle of Opera, Firefox and even Ubuntu Linux. Or do the SMF devs just decide at one build that it is finally ready and release it anyway?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

The answer is quite simple, there won't be an RC6. The next release will be SMF 2.0 Final/Gold.

Aren't versions supposed to be launched as an RC indefinitely, an be declared fit for launch and becoming a final when no more bugs are discovered after a certain time of thorough search? I'm asking this because I've noticed this is the way an RC is declared final in the release cycle of Opera, Firefox and even Ubuntu Linux. Or do the SMF devs just decide at one build that it is finally ready and release it anyway?

Depends really. An RC is a release candidate, that really should mean it is already thought to be "ready to release, unless..."
When the "unless" happens, there may be a new RC released, that again should be ready to release, unless... And so on.

Ideally, there should never be more than one or two, maybe three RC's. We have sadly had to do double that,
but - it's not completely unheard of really, other software have done the same as well at times.
It all comes down to the fact that you can always bump in to unexpected problems while finishing the product,
and fixing bugs. Even the smallest of bugfixes, may really have large side-effects that lead to more bugfixes etc...

At this time, the RC5 is already near ready to release - and we are confident the next version will be stable and usable, as any final product should be.

[c23_Mike]

Hi there!

I think "Lex" has not answered James question as he wanted to know it.

Yes there are several items in the bug tracker. And yes at next release there will be quite far another items in the bug tracker. Additional the latest fixed bugs will not be tested quite long in a new RC.

But these bugs are all minor or small glitches, nothing really to worry about. Secondly all other software also have some glitches at release, well known items called. Thats why all software has verious version and patches. If you want to wait for a software with really no bugs, also after several time waiting, you will never get a software ;-) believe me.

[GravuTrad]

Hmmm, for each software, there's always bugs and updates after final version...

A final version is only a version which is considered as stable for the function of the soft. (No annoying big bug)
But there's still bugs in it, be sure of it....

[metallica48423]

There will always be new bugs that pop up.  It's the nature of the beast

[kat]

Windows Seven's still a bugfix for Windows 95...

[Masterd]

Windows Seven's still a bugfix for Windows 95...

Windows 7 is a bugfix for Vista.

[Matthew K.]

Actually, Windows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be. But Vista was way too buggy.

[live627]

vista wasn't exactly buggy but it didn't meet lots of expectations hence its bad name

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Vista was buggy as hell until SP1. No denying that.

[Masterd]

Vista was buggy because back in 2007 there was no powerful hardware like today. The other part of the "buggynes" is the source code.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Software is designed on Hardware, so hardware problems are not an excuse - and source code, well I won't even go there really - what you just said basically confirmed what I said earlier

[Matthew K.]

This should really get back on topic, along with a possible split to Windows Vista being buggy?

[Masterd]

I can talk about Vista for ages, so you really should split it.

[jelv]

When it goes Gold wouldn't there be a new release with just the release number changed anyway (or do we have to have a release candidate to check that the release number has been changed correctly?).

[Illori]

there will be a new release for 2.0 once it goes gold. there will be no further RC updates once 2.0 goes gold.

there will be some minor code changes once 2.0 goes gold, it is not just a rename of RC5.

[sharks]

NPO. 3PO. It's all starting to sound the same to me. How about some updates on how the conversion to the 3PO is moving on? Has it reached at least 50% or halfway of the overall process? Are the lawyers still waiting for some final decisions? Can we expect the litigation to be resolved before 2012? These are vague deadlines which should be answerable.

[Matthew K.]

There are other topics on this...but the NPO was resolved quite some time ago, and there is a new topic on the dev progress in the developers blog.

NPO. 3PO. It's all starting to sound the same to me. How about some updates on how the conversion to the 3PO is moving on? Has it reached at least 50% or halfway of the overall process? Are the lawyers still waiting for some final decisions? Can we expect the litigation to be resolved before 2012? These are vague deadlines which should be answerable.