preparing the next release v0.15.0

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Guix,

all of us have been very busy fixing bugs, adding great new features,
adding packages, and managing core-updates/staging.  In fact, we’ve done
so much that people installing version 0.14.0 would really miss out on a
couple of important changes.  (For example, they wouldn’t even be able
to update to the latest version directly with “guix pull”.)

It’s about time we make another release.  Let’s make a plan!

Here are a bunch of things that we should look into:

* Outstanding patches.  There are many patches in the queue at
  guix-patches[1] that we should go through, comment on, and/or apply
  before the release.  Who would like to join a task force to do that
  together?  Let’s pick 5 patches each and review them so that we can
  either comment to ask for changes or to apply them.

  [1]: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?package=guix-patches

* breakage since the last core-updates merge.  Since the long overdue
  merge of the “core-updates” branch we have a few serious problems on
  i686 (e.g. the gst-plugins-base package) and armhf.  Who would like to
  lead an effort to investigate and fix these problems?  (Note: you
  obviously don’t need to fix them yourself, just keep track of these
  things and coordinate with others who investigate them.)

* collecting new features and big changes in NEWS.  The NEWS file
  already lists some of the changes that the next release would provide
  compared to 0.14.0, but we all know that there are more.  Who would
  like to take charge of the NEWS file?  This involves asking people for
  changes they would really like to be mentioned and coordinating with
  other volunteers to search through all commits since v0.14.0 to find
  noteworthy changes.

* Finding a date.  Some of the fixes that need to be included may have
  to end up on core-updates.  According to my calendar core-updates will
  be frozen on <2018-08-06 Mon> and be merged on <2018-08-20 Mon> at the
  latest.  That’s a little late, so if we can solve problems on the
  master branch with architecture-specific workarounds that don’t result
  in rebuilding the world (in addition to proper fixes on core-updates)
  that would be best.  What do you think: is July 27 (2018) realistic?

Did I miss anything?  Who wants to help?
Your comments are very welcome!

--
Ricardo