[IMPORTANT] Fedora 21 Schedule Change

== tl;dr Version == We are accelerating the Fedora 21 schedule so that we will enter Final Freeze one week earlier than previously described on the schedule page[1]. This means that all fixes intended for inclusion in the Fedora 21 release must be submitted for the stable repository no later than November 17th (so that we have time to do the updates push and build the Release Candidate on November 18th). The Final Release date will remain at December 9th. This essentially means that we are implementing a planned two-week Final Freeze instead of the traditional one-week freeze. == Why are we doing this? == The Fedora 21 cycle has run considerably beyond its original deadline, primarily due to the massive number of changes that we have been implementing this time around (in particular, the shift to producing three top-tier Products has had a significant impact). Because of the schedule adjustments that took place during the Alpha and Beta phases, we are now looking at an early December release for Fedora 21. With the Final Release being so close to the December holidays, any delay that occurs at this point puts Fedora at real danger of slipping out of 2014 entirely. To minimize this risk, FESCo has decided (with QA and rel-eng input), that we are going to make a one-time modification to our schedule. The historic cause of slips has been that the time between the start of Freeze and the completion of the release validation has never left enough room in the schedule to fix any blocker issues that come up. By moving up the Freeze, we hope to be able to identify these blockers faster and maintain our curernt planned release date. We are aware that shortening a schedule puts added strain on our developers, which is why we generally do not do so except at great reluctance. However, the Fedora Updates Policy[2] describes the period between Beta and Final releases thusly: "The branched tree should now be stabilized and prepared for release. Major changes should be avoided during this period." So the shorter time-frame should already be dedicated only to addressing bug-fixes. Most of these can be handled with a release-day update if needed; those that are truly release- blocking will remain so (and will be allowed to be built into the release candidates during the freeze). [1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/21/Schedule [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Beta_to_Pre_Release