[Qgis-developer] Bugs, release of 1.7 and release of 1.7 as beta

[Agustin Lobo]

I'd like to bring up to the users list the thread on the release of
1.7 that was raised by Paolo in the developers list:
http://osgeo-org.1803224.n2.nabble.com/release-of-1-7-td6421690.html

I take the liberty of including here the two most relevant messages
(in my opinion):

Paolo Cavallini:
"Hi all.
Am I the only one to feel uncomfortable releasing 1.7 with 60 bugs
classified as blocking?
https://trac.osgeo.org/qgis/report/16
IMVHO we should examine them, and either reclassify them or solve them
before release. My feeling is that 1.7 at this stage has significantly more
issues than most previous versions, and could be disappointing for many of
our users.
I hope to be wrong, of course.
All the best.
"
Nathan Woodrow:
"I think releasing as a beta would be a good idea, that way we get 1.7
release out but users know it's not fully done.  This way it also
gives us more time to do bug fixing."

In my opinion, I think a beta release is a good compromise. A "final"
release plenty of bugs would be the worst service that could be done
to QGIS, as QGIS would be regarded by users as an experimental toy for
developers.
The worst scenario is a user thinking that a project can be performed
with QGIS  and then finding out that there are several important bugs
across the processing
chain. This leaves to frustration first and to loss of confidence soon
afterwards. A
totally different situation is that the user knows that he is using a
beta, with a clearly stated "known bugs" list. The same
product would raise admiration and expectation instead of frustration.

Agus