[DISCUSS] Release Apache Brooklyn 0.12.0

[Duncan Godwin <dr...@apache.org>]

This thread is for discussions related to the release vote.

I should clarify what we are looking for in a release vote. Particularly,
we are looking for people to download,validate, and test the release.
Only if you are satisfied that the artifacts are correct and the quality is
high enough, should you make a "+1" vote. Alongside your vote you should list
the checks that you made.

Here is a good example: http://markmail.org/message/gevsz2pdciraw6jw

The vote is not simply about "the master branch contains the features
I wanted" -
it is about making sure that *these* artifacts are *correct* (e.g. they are
not corrupted, hashes and signatures pass) and are of *sufficiently high
quality* to be stamped as an official release of The Apache Software Foundation.

Why test the artifacts when master is looking good? Here are some reasons:

- somebody could have made a commit that broke it, since you last git pulled
- the release branch could have been made at the wrong point, or inconsistently
  between all of the submodules
- something in the release process could have broken it
- I could have made a mistake and corrupted the files
- a problem with the Apache infrastructure could mean that the release files are
  unobtainable or corrupted

This is why the release manager needs you to download the actual release
artifacts and try them out.

The way Apache works can be a bit arcane sometimes, but it's all done with
a reason. If the vote passes then the contents of the email and its links
become "endorsed" by The Apache Software Foundation, and the Foundation will
take on legal liability for them, forever.

And of course we want the best possible experience for our users - so we need
the actual release files to be tested manually to make sure that a mistake does
not ruin the experience for users.

So if you can spare an hour or more to download some of the artifacts and try
them out, then it will be *very* useful! The vote lasts for three days so
there's no need to rush to get a vote in.

Thanks!

Duncan