[tbb-dev] Changes in the Tor Browser usual release schedule? [Was: Tor Browser 11.5.1 (Windows/macOS/Linux) is ready for testing]

[Pier Angelo Vendrame]

On 25/07/22 10:01, intrigeri wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Pier Angelo Vendrame (2022-07-23):
>> On 23/07/22 10:54, intrigeri wrote:
>>> This is quite early compared to what I understand in the Tor Browser
>>> release calendar, where the rebase is scheduled for August 2, so I'm
>>> wondering: is the 11.5.1 desktop release still planned for August 9?
>> The scheduled release date is next Tuesday (July 26).
> Thanks!
>
> FTR, I was looking at the NextCloud calendar linked from
> https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/wikis/Release-Schedule
>
> Is there a better place for downstreams such as Tails to access
> (ideally, up-to-date and reliable) release schedule information?

Hi,

ideally that calendar should be the best place to get these information.

Mozilla's release calendar is also a very good source. As a rule of 
thumb, we start rebasing on Firefox's soft freeze date or the day after, 
and 2-3 days later we have the binaries. But many things can happen, so 
we use a pair of days as buffer.

Also, we usually open the release preparation issues on our GitLab much 
earlier than the release, so you could subscribe to them, to see how we 
are doing, if we are encountering some problem, etc etc.


>
>> For a coincidence we ended up releasing 11.5 close to Mozilla's release
>> of Firefox 91.12 ESR. Therefore, we have rebased to it directly on
>> stable, instead of releasing an alpha (12.0a1) first.
> Do I understand correctly that from now on, you plan to release an
> alpha rebased on top of the new ESR, and *later* release a stable
> rebased as well?
>
> I'm asking because this impacts Tails' release schedule and is
> different from what your team has been doing in the past, i.e.
> release a new stable Tor Browser on about the same day as the ESR, and
> after than take care of the alpha (note that your Release-Schedule
> wiki page reads: "We aim to produce stable releases at the same
> cadence as Mozilla releases ESR updates while alpha release should
> generally follow one week after").

You are right. What we have done differently this time is cherry-picking 
some fixes without releasing them in the alpha first. Sorry for the 
confusion.

We are continuing doing what we have always been doing, so stable about 
the same day as Firefox (tentatively), and alpha after that.


Thanks,

Pier


> Either way is fine for Tails, we just need to know so we can plan
> ahead :)
>
> Thanks in advance,
> cheers!
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