Changes to Release Candidate channel

[Flohack]

Fellow Community,

TLDR;
we are doing some changes to our policy regarding the release candidate (RC) channel´s policy: while previously a new RC image was published every Wednesday morning CET we will publish a new RC only on demand from now on.

What are the reasons for that?

• We had cases where a critical bug was introduced in devel shortly before the automated RC release, but while discussion was started if RC needs to be blocked the cronjob published RC and made the issue even worse
• We want to give RC a real meaning: Users should be more aware about when its time for bug hunting, but in the time between releases they can rely on stable stability.
• Our CI, and the devices, are doing unnecessary compute, resulting in wasted CPU cycles, bytes transferred that bite off data quotas, and in general wear and tear of your eMMC. And sometimes just because someone translated a string in Weblate. So lets save some CO2!

FAQ

• Can I install an RC update manually still? - No, the image is not placed in the channel at all, there is no way to get it from the server.
• How will we be informed about a potential RC incoming? - We will roll social media drums, and also the device will show a pop-up notification telling you that you can install
• But I want to help testing things early! - Please switch to devel channel to do so, and back to RC when you are satisfied with the result.
• And what about Edge channel? - Please do not use the edge channel unless you know what you are doing, are fine with breaking your device for greater goals, or such things. We are not giving any support for issues that are caused by yourself moving off to uncharted territory. Also only a minority of devices even has this channel.

I hope that this change will suit you all well. Leave a message with any concerns.

BR Florian