# Milestone 5: GA Candidate Validation and Release

## Why this milestone exists

The final step to GA is not more feature work. It is proving that Aman has a real public release surface, complete support metadata, and evidence-backed confidence across the supported X11 environment.

## Problems it closes

- The project still looks pre-GA from a trust and release perspective.
- Legal and package metadata are incomplete.
- Release artifact publication and checksum expectations are not yet fully defined.
- The current release checklist does not yet capture all GA evidence.

## In scope

- Publish the first GA release as `1.0.0`.
- Add a real `LICENSE` file.
- Replace placeholder maintainer metadata and example URLs with real project metadata.
- Publish release artifacts and checksums for the portable X11 bundle.
- Keep native `.deb` and Arch package outputs as secondary artifacts when available.
- Publish release notes that describe the supported environment, install path, recovery path, and non-goals.
- Document support and issue-reporting channels.
- Complete the representative distro validation matrix.
- Add explicit GA signoff to the release checklist.

## Out of scope

- Expanding the GA promise beyond X11.
- Supporting every distro with a native package.
- New features that are not required to ship and support the release.

## Dependencies

- Milestones 1 through 4 complete.
- Existing packaging and release-check workflows.
- Final validation evidence from the representative distro families.

## Definition of done: objective

- The release version is `1.0.0`.
- A `LICENSE` file exists in the repository.
- `pyproject.toml`, package templates, and release docs contain real maintainer and project metadata.
- Portable release artifacts and checksum files are published.
- The release notes include install, update, uninstall, troubleshooting, and support/reporting guidance.
- A final validation report exists for Debian/Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora, and openSUSE.
- The release checklist includes and passes an explicit GA signoff section.

## Definition of done: subjective

- An external evaluator sees a maintained product with a credible release process.
- The release feels safe to recommend to X11 users without author hand-holding.
- The project no longer signals "preview" through missing metadata or unclear release mechanics.

## Evidence required to close

- Published `1.0.0` release page with artifacts and checksums.
- Final changelog and release notes.
- Completed validation report for the representative distro families.
- Updated release checklist with signed-off GA criteria.
- Public support/reporting instructions that match the shipped product.