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It would seem that the current release schedule in the “roadmap” may have first appeared in mid-December http://docs.moodle.org/en/index.php?title=Roadmap&oldid=66407 with the pushing of the release date from February to July. While there have been a number of people fiddling with dates (the first beta was to be released in April) it is clear that Dougiamas is trying to stick with the fiction that a July release date is a boon to North American system administrators.

However, with April having come and gone, we have now been offered a “beta preview (see http://www.moodlemonthly.com/2010/martin-dougiamas-outlines-moodle2-at-mootuk10/) which apparently was not “newsy” enough to merit mention on Moodle.org (http://moodle.org/news/.) Stumped as to what that means? You are not alone. Seems to me that it means that there won’t be any beta release any time soon….

With Moodle HQ waxing so insistent, one has to wonder as to the nature of the private correspondence between Tim Hunt (Moodle Dev) and Dougiamas (Moodle Dad) look like, in as much as Tim says (at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=144626&parent=633470):

“When dates are mentioned in relation to Moodle releases,
they should never be taken to mean anything like a schedule.
At best, they are aspirations. They also, sometimes, serve
to focus the developers’ minds a bit.

I think the current aspiration is based on the fact
that if people in the Northern Hemisphere are going to update
during the long summer break, then the release needs to be in
July, and extrapolating back form that, you get to a beta in
March, which, when that date was picked about a month ago,
was not completely implausible.

I think sam’s assessment is a bit more realistic. Beta in
April or May, then see how testing goes, and we shall see.”

Software development, especially with respect to complex systems, will often go through multiple betas, then multiple release candidates, before a production release, and the release of a hugely buggy product even after such a process has dogged vendors such as Microsoft. Yet, having yet to release its first beta, Moodle HQ seems still insistent on fanning the flames of a july release. One can just imagine the “intensive testing” and release cycle for beta(s) and rcs in the next 8 weeks….

Frankly, no sane system administrator is going to put Moodle 2 into production this year (certainly not after the last gradebook fiasco). If Moodle is as successful as Dougiamas claims, why not take one’s time and make sure that Moodle 2 is picture perfect, as opposed to having your base hurl epithets at you for making their lives miserable?