Updated MySQL Workbench Schedule

[Michael G. Zinner]

Dear MySQL Users,

There have been many questions around the development and future of the 
MySQL Workbench project since there has not been any progress in quite 
some time.

This was mainly caused by the GUI Team's efforts around the other tools, 
MySQL Administrator, MySQL Query Browser and MySQL Migration Toolkit. 
Thanks to your [the community's] dedication and help these tools are now 
in a really good shape and the time we will have to spend on maintaining 
them is manageable. This frees our resources to focus on a new project, 
and this project will be MySQL Workbench.


Flagship product
----------------
I am glad to announce that MySQL Workbench is going to become the MySQL 
GUI Team's flagship product in 2007.

To make this happen and ensure that the project offers a solid 
foundation for a multi-year roadmap we decided to take the following steps.

* Cleanup the existing code
* Update the canvas to be Cairo based
* Restructure SVN repositories

These steps are major changes and therefore we have decided to remove 
the Workbench from the MySQL GUI Bundle for 5.0. We will offer separate 
Workbench packages once we have completed the major changes. Once the 
Workbench is available in release candidate quality we will add it to 
the MySQL GUI Bundle again.


The schedule
------------
We plan for new alpha releases mid Q2, followed by Beta releases mid Q3. 
The first release candidate is planned to be available end of Q3 and the 
general availability release is scheduled for Q4 2007.

This will sound like a long time span for the people in need for a good 
open source modeling tool. But at the same time it helps us to put our 
main focus on quality and deliver a rock solid tool.


The Roadmap
-----------
Details about the Workbench roadmap will be released at the MySQL Users 
Conference.


Resources
---------
The GUI Team has been granted two new hirings. Therefore we are looking 
for mid- to senior C++ developers who are interested in Open Source 
development. More details will follow next week.


It is exciting for the team to work on the MySQL Workbench project again 
and we are absolutely sure that your long wait for this product finally 
will pay off.

Mike
-- 
Michael Zinner, GUI Developer
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com
Office: [phone]

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