OStatic

Churning out an x.0 software release must be akin to becoming a new parent -- the event exudes promise, joy, and hope, yet is simultaneously humbling, exhausting, and terror-inducing. While it isn't realistically possible to plan out detailed roadmaps for your children's long-term future, it's crucial to do so for a software project. While whether the presence of a carefully planned roadmap makes progress more or less stressful depends largely on who you ask and at what point you're asking, a project with clearly outlined goals and direction has a much better shot at sustained developer interest and solid releases.

Many projects grapple with this, and as GNOME pushes towards its 3.0 milestone, the GNOME Release Team talks about the voyage to this point -- and how best to travel forward from where it currently stands.

In Friday's OStatic Buffer Overflow, Sam linked to a Phoronix write up on Compiz's uncertain future.

Compiz, the project that brought eye-candy to Linux (with effects ranging from useful to breathtakingly beautiful to why would I want to do that? ), has been in trouble for some time. It's not yet had a stable release, though it has branched (and merged) several times.

If it's confusing for an end-user to figure out what branch of Compiz they're using, think about developing when branches and re-merges fly out of nowhere, like flames behind a mouse pointer, forcing code re-writes (or rendering months of work useless).

Kristian Lyngstol, a Compiz developer, says while the current situation is rather dark, it is not without hope. He doesn't sugarcoat the situation, and proposes what's next for project survival. Maybe not exciting, but his statements are precisely why Compiz still has a fighting chance.

In October, I wrote about Camp KDE. This event was planned to complement Akademy, the traditional developer gathering for the KDE team, giving those unable to attend the former event (and specifically developers in the Americas) a better opportunity to gather and discuss projects.

Late last week, the Camp KDE 2009 presentation selections were announced. In addition to the presentations, the meeting will feature the traditional keynote addresses and birds-of-feather meetings.