[rhelv6-beta-list] Please file bugzillas for the problems you care about

[Subhendu Ghosh]

Connie Sieh wrote:
> On Wed, 5 May 2010, Brian Long wrote:
> 
>> On 05/05/2010 11:57 AM, Connie Sieh wrote:
>>
>>> So how does a customer put in a RFE and have it accepted for RHEL 6 when
>>> by the time we see the beta of RHEL 6 the feature freeze has happened.
>>
>> Connie,
>> In my experience a few years ago, it's best to bring up RFE's in Issue
>> Tracker assuming you have a support contract.  It's also best to make
>> sure your sales rep, TAM and others know how important it is.
>>
>> Last I knew, many customers submit many RFE's and Red Hat product mgmt
>> has to weigh each one and determine how critical it is.  You should also
> 
> Standard RFE procedure.
> 
>> have a monthly or quarterly meeting with your Red Hat reps (either
>> technical or sales) to determine if the RFE was assigned to Engineering
>> and is being worked.
> 
> But we do not know that we needed to submit a RFE until the beta for
> RHEL 6 was out.  And since the feature freeze is done it seems like it
> will not be looked at until RHEL x.1 .
> 
>>
>> Just because RHEL 6.0 is feature frozen doesn't mean an RFE could not be
>> submitted and accepted by Red Hat for RHEL 6.1.  Yes, this means it
>> could be another year before you saw it fully supported and released to
>> the public, but sometimes an RFE can be supported by Red Hat (in a
>> one-off case) depending on your support contract, etc.
> 
> What I am asking for is a procedure for RFE's for new RHEL x releases
> and not RHEL x.1 .

Red Hat receives and evaluates RFEs on a continuous basis. We don't require or
want customers to make distinction between RFE for RHEL x vs RHEL x.y. We
evaluate RFEs and try to set a customer expectation on whether the RFE is
refused, or whether it is feasible for the current releases or should be
targeted for the next or future major releases.

If customers want to request something for a major release they are encouraged
to do it any time and as early as possible. In the tradition of continuous
development, we are always working on multiple projects that move at different
rates. For a release process we select the technologies and tools that provide
customers with the broadest coverage and supportability in the enterprise market.

For this reason it is helpful for customers to file RFEs not for "components"
or "packages" but on functionality and usage. Sometime package/project
references are necessary, but generally they are not.

Some of the RFEs have taken a few years to mature in functionality and we
still evaluate their stability and maturity in a broad deployment context that
is supportable from both Red Hat and all our support partners. Other RFEs are
relatively smaller in scope and easily delivered in a minor release.

-regards
Subhendu

> 
>>
>> I'd still like to know details on XFS support, for example.  I believe
>> it's offered as some sort of tiered upgrade.  The kernel supports XFS
>> out of the box, but the needed filesystem utilities are only available
>> if you pay extra?
>>
>> Since I'm no longer involved in a relationship with Red Hat, I'm fairly
>> disconnected on current practices outside of what's been documented on
>> various public mailing lists.
>>
>> /Brian/
>>
> 
> -Connie Sieh


-- 
Subhendu Ghosh
Red Hat
Email: sghosh at redhat.com