[globus-developer] Announcement Regarding New GT4 Development Release and ScheduleChange

[Lisa Childers <childers@mcs.anl.gov>]

Dear Folks,

On behalf of the Globus Alliance I am pleased to announce that a new 
development release of the Globus Toolkit is now available for download.  
This release includes the full set of core GT components scheduled for 4.0 
Final.  Highlights include:
	- A new C client for WS GRAM
	- A first look at our C WSRF implementation
	- Significant performance enhancements for all WS-based technology
	- Several performance improvements in our new GridFTP server
	- An improved installer interface
	- Improved documentation
	- Important bug fixes

Relevant links for this release include:

Software
http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/downloads/development/ (or CVS tag 
"globus_3_9_4")

Release Notes
http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/docs/development/3.9.4/release_notes.html

Documentation
http://www-unix.globus.org/toolkit/docs/development/3.9.4/

The 3.9.4 release marks an important milestone, as it represents closure 
of the "feature addition" phase of the GT4 development cycle.  We now 
enter a period in which the sole focus of GT4 developers is to test and 
refine the performance and reliability of GT4 code.  In fact, this testing 
phase began with the 3.9.3 release, as many individual components reached 
feature-completeness.  We heartily thank those in the community who have 
been testing 3.9.3!  Your feedback has been invaluable and has lead to 
many of the improvements included in today's release.

Early studies of 3.9.3 revealed significant performance problems with the 
Java WS components.   Happily, today's release includes improvements in 
performance that, for some components, approach an order of magnitude.  
Nevertheless, there is still much work to do before reaching the quality 
standards we've set for GT4.  Based on our experience with 3.9.3, it has 
become clear that we cannot keep to the original GT4 release schedule and 
also meet the quality characteristics demanded by the community.

And so in order to allow more time for performance, stability and other 
usability improvements, the Globus Alliance is extending the GT4 testing 
cycle.   The new target date for 4.0 Final and near-term release schedule 
is as follows:

	17 December 2004
	GT4 Alpha development release (3.9.4) that includes the full set 
of core GT components, as well as significant performance and usability 
improvements.  Available for download now!

	31 January 2005
	GT4 Alpha development release (3.9.5)

	March 2005
	GT4 Beta development release (3.9.6) to contain the final set of 
public interfaces for 4.0
	
	April 2005
	GT 4.0 Final
	
Though we are confident that the new schedule is realistic, it should be 
noted that these dates are subject to change if serious problems of 
function or performance are uncovered during testing.  The bottom line is 
that the Globus Alliance is committed to delivering a 4.0 Final that 
performs well and is robust.  3.9.4 represents a good step toward that 
goal.  Please do try it and tell us what you think.

Best regards,
Lisa