Latest version 2.5.4?

[CanariasData]

No criticism here, really, please don't get me wrong but it is hard to understand why it should be preferable letting people download a buggy v2.5.3 for weeks instead of just fixing this one really bad bug and releasing a 2.5.3b or even an early 2.5.4. version.

It cost much less time to zip the new download rather than making one or two post every week to explain that it is still not available + answering the other threads that talk about fixes and/or SVN downloads.

Just wondering...

[natural]

NO criticism from here either.... I am just saying that the announcement topic should be edited or updated..

The first thing I see when i come to this website forum is the announcement topic.... Then the "read here before you post" stuff....

I would just like the people who wrote the rules to listen to their own rules and make their posts complete and concise.....

I only asked for an update...... I think it was a reasonable request from someone that has supported this project.

[Mick]

Announcement thread removed.

Complete and concise info:

2.5.4 is planned to fix some bugs reported in the 2.5.3 release. While we intended to release it ASAP additional bugs were reported to us after posting the announcement thread of the pending release which took additional time to test, reproduce and fix. My schedule has been very chaotic the past few months with trying to do such minor things as not lose my house or car to foreclosure/repossession, pay bills that I don't have money to pay, work quite a bit of overtime to help satisfy the above issues, spend time with my father who has been suffering major depression since my mother passed way, perhaps squeeze in a few minutes here and there to say hi to my kids so they don't forget me, try to figure out how the heck me and Santa Clause are going to get the kids Christmas presents (and birthday presents since both of them have to have December birthdays just to make things really fun) when I barely have money to put gas in my car to get to work and other fun and exciting things along those lines.

Open-Realty thus has to take a backseat while I address other real life issues. Ryan has been busy with Transparent-Technologies and us getting together to test a new release has been difficult which is a big part of why there were some bugs in the 2.5.3 release. As such, we have been holding off on a 2.5.4 release until such time that he and I can get together and properly test the latest SVN build and verify that there are no major new bugs introduced with that build and then he can build the release and post it. Since Ryan is out of town for a conference; that likely won't be happening this week but that will depend on when he gets back and if we can get together if he isn't too far behind in work at that point.

Short, simple answer that has already been given to summarize and avoid long, personal explanations: The next version will be released when it is ready to be released.

I understand people's frustrations at delays in releases however this is an Open-Source project that makes the developers zero money and thus has to take a backseat in development time when the developers have other real life issues to deal with. The users of the software are always welcome and encouraged to help with the project by downloading and testing the SVN revisions and seeing if they can locate any problems or even reproduce bugs that are reported to the bug tracker. People are also encouraged to even modify the source code with fixes/enhancements and post those fixes/enhancements to the bug and feature trackers to fix existing bugs or enhance or add features to the software. We get very very few code submissions from the community compared to other open source projects which leaves all the work on the shoulders of the few active developers on the project which creates a longer release cycle than other projects.

[pbflash]

I understand people's frustrations at delays in releases however this is an Open-Source project that makes the developers zero money and thus has to take a backseat in development time when the developers have other real life issues to deal with.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[pbflash]

Maybe if people supported the project and it's developers more instead of supporting people that provide next to nothing back to OR, things would be different.

[newbieor]

I think this thread went way off.

Sorry if I am missing something, I am just about to make the upgrades on my sites and wondered if 2.5.4 has been delayed for some reason.

The original poster just wanted to know if he should wait a little longer or not.
I think no one would have asked these questions about "when will it be deployed" had it not been for this part:

this release will be pushed out this evening.

I can understand both sides here, but the above did cause confusion. People are very quick to say "do a search to get your answer", but in this case the search came up with "pushed out this evening."

As for people making money out of templates, addons, plugins, etc - though I do not agree with it - this is not the first and will definitely not be the last open source project where people make money in this way. All Open Source projects have this problem - from Firefox to Ubuntu.

Just my 2 unasked for cents.

[natural]

**MODERATED. If you believe that add-ons you have paid for have been posted here for free, please PM one of the moderators so they can remove it.

[natural]

That was incredibly un fair moderating... I said nothing wrong.... The addon I paid for I gave permission to be released to the community... Because I believe in supporting communities... There is nothing to report..

*Moderated, If you don't want to use OR, don't. Fanning the flames serves no purpose.

[greengiant]

Hi,

The release of 2.5.4 being held up was simply due to my being tied up with a number of other issues here. 2.5.4 is in fact built, however there have been some additional bug fixes since the 2.5.4 release was built so we will be skipping 2.5.4 and publishing 2.5.5 this weekend.

One thing I would like to say is that Open-Realty has only a small community development team, so please keep that in mind if a release is delayed. This team sees very little in the way of code contributions or donations to the Open-Realty project, and does recieve what seems to be an endless string of request or enhancments etc..

We love the Open-Realty project or none of us would work on it, the lack of outside contribution does tend to get under our skin at time to time. Why that is not an excuse for anyone acting rudely, which I do not think is anyones desire, hopefully everyone that is using Open-Realty can understand that this project takes an enormous amount of time and if you are using it please consider what benifit Open-Realty has on your buiness and contribute back to the project occasionally.

We have a lot of plans for future enahncements to Open-Realty that will continue to help everyone here use Open-Realty in exciting ways to drive there online business.

[the_sandking]

Before this completely turns into a flame-fest, I'll add my $.02 and then this thread gets locked. I'm not aiming this post at everyone, but the guilty parties already know who they are. Perhaps after reading this, some of you may understand why things can get tense here occasionally.

FACT: Financial donations to the OR project have always been abysmal, yet there are many people out there making thousands of dollars per year using OR as a foundation for products, services, and solutions they provide. Some unscrupulous individuals have even stated as a part of their advertisements that a straight percentage of their revenue from every sale goes back to the OR project, which just never seems to happen.

At no time is anyone guaranteed to receive updates to OR on any sort of regular or advertised schedule. OR is free, and people who download it are free to use it within the terms of its licensing. Since OR is also open-source you are free to "fix" anything you may feel does not work the way you may want it. Public SVN access to in-progress versions of OR are also graciously provided at no cost so that those with the proper experience can patch their code and/or assist in the further development of this powerful application.

This project is blessed by people like Mick and pbflash who donate their code, expertise, as well as their time answering support questions. I don't think they were attempting to paint everyone here with a wide brush, but I can completely sympathize with their feelings as of late, because I imagine that they (like me) are receiving almost daily PMs from:

a) Individuals who have spent their entire site budget paying 3rd parties to create solutions or add-ons using OR, who then cannot obtain assistance from the parties they paid.

or

b) "Site Designers" who made a lot of promises to their customer to land a project but then find out they cannot do what they promised because they don't have the skills or haven't even read the OR documentation, and then come here looking for free custom code or a PHP-101 education.

After you get about a dozen or two of these two kinds of PMs it can become very frustrating and I dare say it can even anger me at times, and I'm not even one of OR's developers any more.

This thread has run its course, and has even had a response from the Big Kahuna himself, it's time for it to die now.