What is to be released to the world?

[Joe Klemmer]

Oblio wrote:

> As far as I can tell, most open source developers set a very high goal
> for 1.0, sometimes one that is VERY distant. Look at Inkscape: it's
> 1.0 release should have the full features (and even more), of Corel
> Draw (IIRC, Corel Draw is at its tenth release or something like
> that). Yet that doesn't mean that it's 0.43 release is a beta, it just
> has fewer features than its target.

	This is so for many projects but it's also a complete misuse of the 
whole version number system.  If the program is functional and stable 
then it is supposed to be at least at version 1.0 (in the old days, at 
least).  Inkscape is a perfect example of a project that has fubar'ed 
their version scheme.

	However, lest people get the wrong idea, I am not slamming any projects 
or open source in general.  This whole issue of version numbers and beta 
testing has been whacked for nearly a decade so it's nothing new.  It 
would just be so much less confusing and so much more efficient if it 
were all done the way it was intended to be.

Joe