[RFC] New stable branch (and maybe a new process?)

[Stefan Schmidt <stefan@datenfreihafen.org>]

Hello.

I want to gather some feedback what people are feeling about a new stable
branch. It feels like the right time to do it soon. We have so many big changes
in that are not likely to get into stable/2009 like:

- New staging
- BBCLASSEXTEND
- Checksums in recipes
- Faster BitBake
- Enhanced java support with openjdk/icedtea
- And many I forgot...

With the latest fixes for the file:// problem the build feels stable at last for
me. I have not been involved with the latest stable branch so this is really
only a RFC from my side. Please let me know if you see big issues for such a
move.

Open questions:
---------------
- Do we feel comfortable with doing a new branch now?
- What version of bitbake we would like to have for this?
- What boards/images/distros will be supported in stable/2010?

I my be biased here regarding my work for BugLabs, but I feel me diverged that
much from stable/2009 that it gets problematic to get changes in and syncing
them with .dev. As well the overall build experience on .dev is pretty good the
last weeks. The file:// problems aside.

Another idea we just discussed on IRC was to have a model somehow related to
what debian is using. An ongoing flow of patches from .dev to a testing branch.
Perhaps automated with buildbot to move into testing when some certain builds
have passed with this commit. And also an _ongoing_ stream well tested patches
from testing into stable which eventually makes a time-based release every X
months form this ond move on.

That all needs to be filled with more details, but it could be a start. Let me
know what you think.

regards
Stefan Schmidt