Don’t look now, but the idea of making a formal FFmpeg release in the very near future is gaining traction over on the FFmpeg-devel list. There is a determined and growing team of individuals committed to this goal in the near future. To that end, there is even a Wiki page listing the steps that need to occur leading up to a release.

There is some debate about what kind of release schedule we should commit to. Some take the stance that we should follow the model that Wine apparently follows by releasing every 2 weeks. Really, every new weeks? I had never heard of that before. It strikes me as a bit severe. I personally would like to see a little more time between releases, but see them often enough that we get really good at it, and it becomes part of our shared community mindset.

After all, there are a few projects out there that depend on FFmpeg.

I admit, whenever I get to thinking about an FFmpeg release, I get a little nervous about the ensuing discussion. Not the discussion about whether or not a release should happen; that’s a foregone conclusion because it will happen. No, the item that makes me lose sleep is the biggest bikeshed hue discussion of them all — how should we version the upcoming release of FFmpeg? I don’t think I even want to get involved in that one.