I respectfully disagree with Italo.
First, about the "frame of reference". In my opinion, decisions such as major version number
bumping are not, first and foremost, marketing decisions. That is a _consideration_, since the
version number is declarative than technical. But - such an action should be "truthful" before
being "marketable".
It is more important, in my opinion, that users and potential users receive trustworthy signaling
from the project - not just w.r.t. version numbers, but generally - than for the media to get a
gimmick for coverage.
A second point is that bumping a version number without a major innovation moves you a few more
steps into the category of, say, Firefox and such, where versions just increase automatically
with no meaning whatsoever. Italo, you said we are perceived as a "real innovator"; well, when a
real innovator starts having hollow version number bumping, that perception fades.
Finally, everyone who likes the marketing potential of version 8 - great, but - keep that benefit
for when we have a significant step forward to celebrate. Don't squander it.
Eyal
PS: availability on a new platform is not a reason to bump a version number. It's the "same"
software, but built for another target, so same version as before. IMHO anyway.
On 27/03/2023 20:11, Italo Vignoli wrote:
Moving to LibreOffice 8 (instead of 7.6) makes sense for marketing purposes, as media is looking
at LibreOffice as the real innovator in the open source office suite market, and the feeling of
journalists is that we are forever stuck at 7.x.
We all know that the next version will not include any significant innovation which can justify
the change of version, apart from the new build system for Windows and the availability of
LibreOffice for Arm processors on Windows (which has not been announced).
Playing with the number 8, which can be rotated 90° to become the "infinite" symbol, we can
frame the next version as LibreOffice for an infinite number of users, as we cover all hardware
platforms and all operating systems for personal productivity.
This is my opinion. If the community wants to stick with 7.6, I won't insist. I have received
enough insults both public and private for the marketing plan, and I am still receiving them
from a few people, that I am not willing to enter into that process again (even if the decision
on the "community" tag has not been mine, but it looks like people have a very short memory).
Looking forward to your thoughts.
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