There appear to be no 7.0 release packages, only nightly builds

Only nightly builds are listed for v7.0:
http://nightly.openerp.com/7.0/

For v6.1 release builds are listed as well:
http://nightly.openerp.com/6.1/

Can v7.0 release builds be released as such?

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As far as I know this is done on purpose.
You have to use the latest nightly builds, because so many fixes are committed every day you can't seriously run OpenERP with stable builds.

Err... So according to this:
http://nightly.openerp.com/

7.0 is stable, but you are saying it is so unstable you need nightly patches (i.e. unsuitable for production use)
6.1 is unsupported (i.e. unsuitable for production use)

So 6.0 is the most recent version suitable for production use?

> 7.0 is stable, but you are saying it is so unstable you need nightly patches (i.e. unsuitable for production use)

I don't think I said that.
It's just that OpenERP has a huge scope, much larger that the average software package.
You "need" the latest nightlies just like you "need" to run Windows Update on Windows, or you "need" package upgrades on GNU/Linux.
It's not mandatory but you'd be a fool to do otherwise. So why would they release a stable release nobody should use?

Now of course, you don't have to upgrade everyday. Just get a nightly and be done, until maybe one day you are affected by a bug.
On the other hand if you do plan to upgrade regularly, I advise you to use the bazaar branches because Bazaar makes it so easy to get new versions, merge your own patches etc.
I usually upgrade every few months just to be safe.

The upgrade process in itself is not demanding: just start the server with --update=all.

> So 6.0 is the most recent version suitable for production use?

Not even. The policy has changed in the meantime and no new point-releases are made anymore, so you "need" to get the nightlies for v6.0 too.
But really you should not deploy v6.0 now. Support will be dropped soon.

Does it make it clearer?

It makes it clearer, but it doesn't make the situation any better. Or to put it another way, my interpretation may not have been exactly what you said, but your clarification has not showed my interpretation to be incorrect.

Even Windows updates tend to be at most weekly, typically much less frequent. On Linux it is substantially less frequent. Daily updates are simply not reasonable for something that is expected to run in a production environment.

Updating when affected by a bug is fair enough, but what about potential security issues? IMO security issues should be done in releases so that there is no endless treadmill of updating for the sake of updating and suffering unnecessary regressions all for the possibility of catching a security update (and potentially introducing new ones).

This is somewhat disappointing policy and it my yet result in my using different software for the task.

Gordan,

With all due respect, I think you are not understanding how OpenERP, and
the majority of big opensource softwares are developed and released.

You do NOT need to update just because there is a new revision on the
version you are running, and the process you describe of updating at the
risk of a regression because the team want another thing fixed or a new
feature available is done in the trunk. Once the trunk is ready for a
stable release, you get one, as it happened with v6.0, 6.1 or 7.0.

But you need to understand that you will not have further stable releases
in that series as packages you can install on top of the first one.
Actually, most of the production environments are run with bazaar branches,
not with package installation. This is because it is an ERP after all, not
a user utility. The installation, maintenance and upgrades are done by
technical people. Most of us just run the most recent stable (7.0 for
example) branches. We do not update these branches everyday, not even once
a week. The rule of thumb here would be to stick with a revision of the
branches to go live and do the implementation process. After that you can
upgrade your branches in a programmed schedule (once a month for example),
or if you encounter a bug that is fixed in a later release.

As an advice, always keep a log of your updates, marking the date and
previous and new revision of every branch you use, this way you can go back
if something is wrong.

Regards,
--
PS: escribí este email desde mi teléfono, por favor disculpe la brevedad y
cualquier error de escritura.

Carlos Vásquez
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