Hi all,

before we get back to earlier discussions, let me take a little trip into history and summarize how the state of the project has evolved over time and what are the tasks that await us.

Note: If you do not want to take a trip into history, you can wait for the subsequent e-mail with the Summary chapter.

-- 2008 / 2009 -- KDE 3.5 development comes to a stop

KDE 3.5 development stops. As a KDE 3.5 maintainer for Ubuntu, Tim devotes his efforts to maintaining KDE 3.5 for newer versions of KUbuntu - still under the original name KDE 3.5.

Unfortunately, I do not know much about that time. Tim provides repositories that sooner or later would be found as PPAs on the official Ubuntu Launchpad. Tim provides bugtracker and mailing lists that are independent of the Ubuntu world.

-- 2010 -- TDE is born!

Fork KDE 3.5 is official - Trinity Desktop is here! The first version of TDE (3.5.11) is released.

A branch in KDE SVN is used to manage the source code. Other services are provided and donated by Tim. Starting with release 3.5.12, Tim provides QuickBuild (a custom instance of Launchpad). Thank to this, the project has an independent environment for building packages and providing repositories for Debian like distributions.

-- 2011 -- Move to TQt

TDE 3.5.13 is released - the first version where the TQt interface library is used. It is decided to change the numbering for the new major release - it will be TDE R14.0.0.

Work is underway to migrate from KDE SVN to TDE own GIT SCM.

-- 2012 -- Development, stable and SRU releases

Because TDE 3.5.13 contained many minor but also major issues, a repository was created to provide packages with backported patches from the main R14.0.0 development branch - the basis for working on a stable branch was created. Initially, only individual packages were created, but gradually all packages were added and a complete release of TDE 3.5.13.1 is created.

Migration to the GIT is complete! The project has all the services on its own servers - provided and donated by Tim. There is a system of mirrors where individual mirrors are provided and donated by the owners of these mirrors.

-- 2013 -- Work on upcoming R14.0.0 continues

TDE 3.5.13.2 is released.

Many KDE => TDE renames are being done for the upcoming R14.0.0.

-- 2014 -- R14.0.0 is finally here + PSB

TDE R14.0.0 is released!

A base framework for major, minor and maintenance releases is established.

Due to air conditioning issues on Tim's infrastructure and the temporary shutdown of some services, alternative repositories with builders independent of QuickBuild are created - repository known as Preliminary Stable Builds (PSB). The infrastructure for PSB is provided and donated by Slávek. Mirror PSB is provided and donated by Jan Černohorský (mirror.xcer.cz).

The structure of official mirrors is improved to reduce overloading the connectivity of primary servers when a new version is released. Mike Bird provides and donates the primary mirror.

-- 2015 -- Maintenance releases

TDE R14.0.1 and R14.0.2 are released.

Due to low funds, some services are shutdown on Tim's infrastructure - regular automatic creation of Ubuntu LiveCDs with TDE. Access to Nightly Builds is restricted. And there are some hardware issues with the servers on Tim's infrastructure.

Slávek manages to get a VPS machine from vpsFree as a donation! This makes it possible to create a new highly optimized primary redirector. Thanks to the cache on the redirector, the process of releasing new releases has become significantly faster. It also provides a fallback server so that development and services can continue.

-- 2016 -- More maintenance releases

TDE R14.0.3 and R14.0.4 are released.

Development is progressing steadily. Infrastructure is stable - Tim's primary site, mirrors with primary from Mike, VPS from vpsFree, Slávek's infrastructure for PSB. There are small donations from contributors. Tim is busy with other projects for most of the year.

-- 2017 -- A quiet year for TDE + PTB

No new release of TDE :-( Development is slow and mostly limited to keep packages into a building state. Most of the developers are very busy through the year.

Nightly Builds don't work properly for a long time and due to Tim absence, it's difficult to add new distributions. Therefore the Preliminary Testing Build (PTB) repository has been set up to replace Night Builds. The packages are built on the same infrastructure as PSB.

Both repositories - PSB and PTB - have now been placed on the primary redirector - VPS from vpsFree, making them more accessible and giving them some sort of official recognition.

-- 2018 -- TDE lives on. TGW becomes the new developer's home

TDE R14.0.5 is released - the project has not die after all!

Thanks to VPS donated by vpsFree, we introduced a new development collaboration tool - TDE Gitea Workspace (TGW). This greatly improves the ability to contribute to the project and new contributors have joined.

Problems with services hosted on Tim's primary infrastructure are becoming progressively bigger, causing issues to the project as a whole given only Tim can manage those services. Slávek and Michele come up with plans for an anternative TDE infrastructure should Tim be no longer available in future.

-- 2019 -- New life for TDE and a new project leader!

TDE R14.0.6 and R14.0.7 are released.

Thanks to VPS donated by vpsFree, the TDE Weblate Translation Workspace (TWTW) is introduced. This greatly simplifies and improves translation work and let users translates TDE into their own languages from a browser seamlessly.

Tim arranges for the donation of a new TDE box from IntegriCloud! A powerful machine on the POWER9 architecture which is fully manageable and accessible to other core project members. No more "one man weak link" in the infrastructure. Migration of services from Tim's infrastructure to the new TDE box is started.

Tim agrees to pass the role of project leader to Slávek.

A new primary archive is created, the layout is changed and cleaning is performed. As a result, primary archive is no longer dependent on QuickBuild as it would make it impossible to release new versions for current distributions. Reprepro is now used to manage the repositories. The official packages are now based on PSB. This also allows smoother synchronization of new releases to mirrors. The new archive is located on Slávek's home server, which maintains and donates it.

-- 2020 -- TDE 10th anniversary!

TDE R14.0.8 is released - we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first release of TDE!

Although there are several tasks for migrating services from Tim's infrastructure to Integricloud's new TDE box, the services needed for development are working properly. Several new contributors to code and translations have joined and development is at its peak in the last 6 or 7 years. The project is doing well!

R14.0.9 is planned for a Q4 release.

Welcome back from a trip into history! A summary of the state of the infrastructure will be in the subsequent e-mail... stay tuned.

Cheers