www/169169: [patch] rewrite text of Releases web page

Sun Jun 17 02:10:07 UTC 2012

>Number:         169169
>Category:       www
>Synopsis:       [patch] rewrite text of Releases web page
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-www
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Jun 17 02:10:07 UTC 2012
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Mark Linimon
>Release:        FreeBSD 9.0-STABLE i386
>Organization:
FreeBSD
>Environment:
N/A
>Description:
The releases page is badly in need of a rewrite.  It is cluttered, it
introduces details before general concepts (if it bothers to introduce
the general concepts in the first place), and it assumes that a reader
is most interested in how release engineering works, rather than "which
version of FreeBSD should I download."

What's there is not so much "wrong" as "poorly organized."

Test render without css and images:

  http://people.freebsd.org/~linimon/www/en/releases/index.html

Current page for comparison:

  http://www.freebsd.org/releases/index.html
>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
NB: some whitespace sins are preserved for diff reduction.
Index: index.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/FreeBSD/dcvs/www/en/releases/index.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.134
diff -u -r1.134 index.sgml

--- index.sgml	18 Apr 2012 16:53:26 -0000	1.134
+++ index.sgml	13 Jun 2012 00:27:09 -0000
@@ -10,12 +10,32 @@
 &header;
 <img alt="FreeBSD Releases" src="../gifs/releases.jpg" height="200" width="300" align="right" border="0">
 
-<p><em>For late-breaking news about FreeBSD, please visit
-the <A HREF="&base;/news/newsflash.html">Newsflash</A> page.</em></p>
+<p>FreeBSD releases are classified into "Production Releases" and "Legacy
+Releases".  The former are best suited to users wishing the latest new
+features; the latter are for users wishing to stay with a more conservative
+upgrade strategy.</p>
+
+<p>Releases are further classified by the length of time they will be
+supported by the Security Officer into "Normal" and "Extended" releases.</p>
+
+       <p>Documentation files for each release are
+       available for viewing in HTML format on the
+       <a HREF="&base;/relnotes.html">Release Documentation</a> page.</p>
+
+<a name="supported-releases"></A>
+<h2>Currently Supported Releases</h2>
+
+<p>Complete information about the release date, the classifcation type,
+and the estimated End-Of-Life (EOL) for currently supported releases
+can be found on the <a href="&base;/security/security.html#sup">
+Supported Releases</a> section of the
+<a href="&base;/security/security.html">FreeBSD Security Information</a>
+page.
 
 <a name="current"></A>
-<h2>Current Release(s)</h2>
+<h2>Most Recent Release(s)</h2>
 
+<h3>Production Releases</h3>
 <p><b>Release &rel.current;</b> (&rel.current.date;)
 <em>
 <a href="&u.rel.announce;">Announcement</a> :
@@ -36,6 +56,7 @@
 <a href="&u.rel2.errata;">Errata</a>
 </em></p>
 
+<h3>Legacy Releases</h3>
 <p><b>Release &rel3.current;</b> (&rel3.current.date;)
 <em>
 <a href="&u.rel3.announce;">Announcement</a> :
@@ -45,6 +66,14 @@
 <a href="&u.rel3.errata;">Errata</a>
 </em></p>
 
+<a name="future"></A>
+<h2>Future Releases</h2>
+
+       <p>To see the schedule of upcoming releases, or 
+       for more information about the release engineering process, please
+       visit the <a href="&base;/releng/index.html">Release
+       Engineering</a> section of this web site.</p>
+
 <p>The latest snapshots from our <A
 HREF="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html#STABLE">FreeBSD-STABLE</A>
 and <A
@@ -53,35 +82,8 @@
 also available.  Please see <A HREF="../where.html">Getting
 FreeBSD</A> for details.</p>
 
-<a name="supported-branches"></A>
-<h2>Supported Releases</h2>
-
-<p>The current designation and estimated lifetimes of currently
-supported releases can be found on the
-<a href="&base;/security/security.html#sup">FreeBSD
-Security Information</a> page.</p>
-
-<a name="future"></A>
-<h2>Future Releases</h2>
-
-       <p>We will continue to bring you new releases from both
-       our <A HREF="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html#STABLE">FreeBSD-STABLE</A> and
-       <A HREF="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html#CURRENT">FreeBSD-CURRENT</A>
-       branches, both as developer's snapshots and as regular full releases.</p>
-
-       <p>For more information about the release engineering process,
-       or to see a comprehensive schedule of upcoming releases, please
-       visit the <a href="&base;/releng/index.html">Release
-       Engineering</a> section of this web site.</p>
-
-       <p>The release documentation files for FreeBSD-STABLE and
-       FreeBSD-CURRENT are available for viewing in HTML format on the
-       <a HREF="&base;/relnotes.html">Release Documentation</a> page.
-       These files are rebuilt periodically, and reflect the changing
-       state of FreeBSD's development.</p>
-
-<a name="past"></A>
-<h2>Past Releases</h2>
+<a name="prior-supported"></A>
+<h2>Prior Releases Still Being Supported</h2>
 <ul>
       <li><b>8.2</b> (February 2011)
 	<em>
@@ -102,7 +104,20 @@
 	  <a href="8.1R/errata.html">Errata</a>
 	</em>
       </li>
+</ul>
+
+<a name="prior-unsupported"></A>
+<h2>Prior Releases Which Have Reached EOL</h2>
 
+<p>Complete historical information about the release date, the classification
+type, and the effective End-Of-Life (EOL) for these releases may be found
+on the
+<a href="&base;/security/security.html#unsup">
+Unsupported Releases</a> section of the
+<a href="&base;/security/security.html">FreeBSD Security Information</a>
+page.
+
+<ul>
       <li><b>8.0</b> (November 2009)
 	<em>
 	  <a href="8.0R/announce.html">Announcement</a>:
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
