Prep for release candidate 1.5.0 RC0

[Andrew Purtell <ap...@apache.org>]

I would like to put up the first release candidate for 1.5.0 by the end of
August. To that end over the next couple of weeks I will be evaluating test
stability, cluster stability under chaos testing, and performance
differences (if any) with the latest 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 releases as measured
by the open source benchmarking tools at our disposal, PE, LTT, and YCSB.

​If you have any backport work to branch-1 pending please consider
finishing it up and getting it in within the next couple of weeks. However,
if the changes are likely to have a significant impact (for example, it
conforms to compatibility guidelines for a minor release, but not a patch
release) then you might want to hold off until after branch-1.5 has been
branched, so it can go into branch-1 for a 1.6.0 release toward the end of
the year. Use your best judgement is all I ask.

-- 
Best regards,
Andrew

Words like orphans lost among the crosstalk, meaning torn from truth's
decrepit hands
   - A23, Crosstalk