Rockbox Technical Forums

Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: woodensoul on August 21, 2013, 11:59:04 PM

Title: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: woodensoul on August 21, 2013, 11:59:04 PM
3.13 was released over 5 months ago.  Did we abandon quarterly releases?
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: saratoga on August 22, 2013, 12:01:53 AM
We stopped doing quarterly releases 3 or 4 years ago, now we tend to do one every 4-6 months depending on availability.  We are due for another one soon though. 
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: rbhawaii on January 05, 2014, 04:10:34 PM
 is it once a year now? or is rb done?
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: saratoga on January 05, 2014, 04:26:55 PM
Its whenever we get around to it.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: rbhawaii on January 05, 2014, 04:44:56 PM
yes of course and that is obvious. i think the question is why was it gotten around to so much more often in the past. is there less interest in rb these days? is it starting to be abandoned? i heard the argument before that android devices these days are so good that rb does not shine like it once did. 
i do use gone mad music player on my android and it is great but rb is still better. so im still just wondering why it seemed like there was much more excitement and enthusiasm about rb and new releases in the past but now it seems there is hardly any...? 
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: saratoga on January 05, 2014, 04:49:10 PM
In the past we have gone years without releases.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: rbhawaii on January 05, 2014, 04:54:55 PM
the list is here

http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/board,38.0.html

it was many years ago that we have gone years without releases . nothing in the recent past
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: bluebrother on January 05, 2014, 05:06:55 PM
the list is here

you should rather check the release notes, that's a better and more complete overview:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes

Quote
it was many years ago that we have gone years without releases . nothing in the recent past

Which doesn't mean that we won't / shouldn't make more or less releases. People work on Rockbox in their free time, when nobody works on it no new releases will happen. Everyone is free to join in developing Rockbox :) Plus, the use of dedicated mp3 players is getting less -- with mobile phones these days the need is simply less. Oh, and a lot of developers consider Rockbox pretty much feature complete, and hunting bugs is much more work than implementing new stuff. At least usually :)
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: AlexP on January 08, 2014, 05:53:10 PM
I'd say it's a combination of a number of things.

One is time, I've certainly had less recently
Another is indeed smartphones, I use Rockbox a huge amount less that I used to
Another is general stability - we seem to have a few problems knocking around with regressions.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: rbhawaii on January 08, 2014, 06:16:07 PM
my problem with smartphones is they are not mp3 players first... meaning they dont have enough space for a reasonable mp3 collection. my 240 gig ipod does not have enough space either but it is the biggest storage in the smallest package i could find. thats why rb is gold for me and why i look forward to the updates.   3.13 on the ipod seems very stable to me but i know there is a lot i dont know about the current state of the rb code. im greatful to all coders and contributors . its just sad to see what looks like the slow approach to a stop in interest.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: Astrogoth on February 06, 2014, 01:59:38 AM


Not to mention that RB sounds a lot better than a phone or an Apple product.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: AlexP on February 06, 2014, 02:52:11 PM
Agreed, dedicated players do a better job for some things, but the phone is good enough and I for one don't want to carry multiple devices if I don't have to.  I still take a dedicated player for e.g. long trips, just not day-to-day.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: royal on February 28, 2014, 03:33:37 PM
I'm also curious about the development of rockbox.  One of the features I really like is the database stats.  I actually wish I could use the stats more (for like sorting lists, etc), but that's not the point I'm making now.  My 8(+24) GB Sansa has a screen that is now getting more and more cracks and it is a matter of time before it starts failing completely or the battery stops working.  I managed to lose the replacement I bought a year or so ago...

It seems to me that for non-apple devices there aren't (m)any currently available devices rockbox works on.
Although I'm not certain that I would want to use my phone for playing music all the time, it seems like the direction to go.  What can I do to help development of the Android version of rockbox?

Are there any current hardware (dedicated) mp3 players that I could get in the store now that rockbox runs on?
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: saratoga on February 28, 2014, 03:56:01 PM
Although I'm not certain that I would want to use my phone for playing music all the time, it seems like the direction to go.  What can I do to help development of the Android version of rockbox?

Grab the source and get to work on it.

Are there any current hardware (dedicated) mp3 players that I could get in the store now that rockbox runs on?

Yeah, actually I think there are more now that at pretty much any point in the history of the project.  The Clip+, Zip, Fuze+ and iPod classic at least. 
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: royal on February 28, 2014, 05:38:39 PM
Does Rockbox work better with the controls for the + versions of the Sansa Players than the standard firmware?  I made the mistake of giving my in-laws a Fuze+ player one year and the controls are aggravating to say the least...
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: monoid on February 28, 2014, 06:25:30 PM
I haven't use OF of Sansa Fuze+ for two years, so my memory might fool me.

I would say RB is handling touchpad better. And is MUCH better if one has loads of music. I have 16 GB Fuze+ and 32 GB memory card. The start of OF took several minutes!!!! Which is not acceptable. RB starts smoothly in few seconds.
Title: Re: What happened to 3.14 (quarterly releases)?
Post by: rbhawaii on March 07, 2014, 10:29:34 PM
I feel kind of bad ... we forgot someones birthday!
On March 5th rockbox version 3.13 turned 1 year old!
Who needs that nasty new version 3.14 with new features and fixes?
May you live to be 100! lol