The Feature Freeze is now in effect for Karmic. The focus from here until release is on fixing bugs and polishing.

If you believe that a new package, a new upstream version of a package, or a new feature is needed for the release and will not introduce more problems than it fixes, please follow the Freeze Exception Process by filing bugs and subscribing ubuntu-release or motu-release as appropriate, or by contacting a designated delegate.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess

Please also make sure that specs assigned to you for Karmic are updated to their current status (which should be at least Beta Available if not Deferred, or unless granted a freeze exception).

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/

Our next testing milestone, Karmic Alpha 5, is scheduled for next Thursday, September 3. Karmic Alpha 5 will again use a “soft freeze” for main. This means that developers are asked to refrain from uploading packages between Tuesday and Thursday which don’t bring us closer to releasing the alpha, so that these days can be used for settling the archive and fixing any remaining showstoppers.

The list of bugs targeted for alpha-5 can be found at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+bugs?field.milestone=12713

Per the policy described at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RCBugTargetting>, this list is used for tracking bugs that are blockers for the alpha 5 milestone – so as you can see, the list is currently quite short. If you know of other bugs that should be considered blockers, please nominate them for release and set the milestone target for those bugs. If you have questions about whether a bug should be considered a blocker, please contact a member of the release team.

And of course, please also consider helping with the bugs already listed there if you have the time.

Beyond that short list of bugs that are blockers for Alpha 5, we have those bugs that are listed as release-critical for Karmic as a whole:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+bugs

If you aren’t among the small group of people who have milestoned bugs assigned to you, please consider helping with those release-targeted bugs, using your best judgement with regard to the alpha freeze when uploading
fixes.

Please also help us to get the archive in a consistent state again for the alpha, as described on <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PackageArchive#Consistency>.

Finally, if you know of new features in Karmic that you think should be highlighted for Alpha 5, let me or another member of the release team know so that they can be added to the technical overview at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/TechnicalOverview>.

[Discuss Feature Freeze and the upcoming Alpha 5 on the Forums]

Originally sent to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list by Steve Langasek on Thu Aug 27 02:07:43 BST 2009