Ubuntu To Discontinue Opt-In Development Milestones In Favor Of Test Weeks

The proposal for replacing early Ubuntu derivatives' early alpha/beta releases with "testing weeks" in its place is moving forward with no objections having been raised but flavors like Kubuntu and Xubuntu being in favor of the change.

Ubuntu developer Simon Quigley has announced that with no objections to the proposal, opt-in milestones for Ubuntu releases would be discontinued in favor of testing weeks (well, really just from Tuesdays through Thursdays). The goal of these testing weeks is to encourage more testing of these releases, these releases would be fresher / using daily ISO snapshots rather than alpha/beta releases in a frozen state for several days, and would free resources around release management duties, among other potential benefits.

Quigley is wishing to organize the testing weeks for the upcoming Ubuntu 18.10 cycle while he hopes other release managers will take on the task for Ubuntu 19.04. They will also be exploring more automated testing.

More details via this mailing list post.