In order to be released to the general public, the PRE-RELEASE Candidate (RC) must meet all of the following criteria. This is intended to make the decision process as clear and straightforward as possible. Mostly met items are incomplete until they are met. Optional and nice to have items should not be included in this list.
There may be times where a requirement is unmet only in a particular configuration, such as with some keyboard layouts but not others, or if a particular character is used in a username, password or passphrase. In such cases, the release team should use their judgement and refer to precedent to determine whether or not the issue should be considered to block the release. They should consider the number of users likely to be affected by the issue, the severity of the case when the issue is encountered, and the ease or otherwise with which the issue can be avoided by both informed and uninformed users.
The term 'release-blocking desktops' means all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops for the x86 and x86 architectures is GNOME and KDE. The current release-blocking desktop for the ARM architecture is KDE. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for freeze exception status, according to the freeze exception bug process.
The term 'release-blocking images' means all the images in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking images for the x86 and x86_64 architectures includes the network install image, the DVD image, the live images for each of the release-blocking desktops, and the cloud images. The current set of release-blocking images for the ARM architecture includes the minimal and KDE direct deployment images.