Documentation/releases: Add release notes

This adds the release notes for all of our old releases that have notes
to the documentation directory.  The release notes for the next release,
4.9 is added here as well.

I would request that people document their changes for the next release
themselves if they wish them to be in the release notes.

Change-Id: I7440a3130f2f7d80c4434d2b5a918e62bbd08fbb
Signed-off-by: Martin Roth <martinroth@google.com>
Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/26799
Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org>
Reviewed-by: Patrick Rudolph <siro@das-labor.org>
Reviewed-by: Paul Menzel <paulepanter@users.sourceforge.net>
Reviewed-by: Patrick Georgi <pgeorgi@google.com>

1 files changed, 58 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/releases/coreboot-4.1-relnotes.md b/Documentation/releases/coreboot-4.1-relnotes.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4bc7a397e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/releases/coreboot-4.1-relnotes.md
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+Announcing coreboot 4.1
+=======================
+
+Dear coreboot community,
+
+It has been more than 5 years since we have "released" coreboot 4.0.
+That last release marked some very important milestones that we
+originally prototyped in the abandoned LinuxBIOS v3 efforts, like the
+coreboot filesystem (CBFS), Kconfig support, and (strictly) separate
+device trees, build logic and configuration.
+
+Since then there have been as many significant original developments,
+such as support for many new architectures (ARM, ARM64, MIPS, RISC-V),
+and related architectural changes like access to non-memory mapped SPI
+flash, or better insight about the internals of coreboot at runtime
+through the cbmem console, timestamp collection, or code coverage
+support.
+
+It became clear that a new release is overdue. With our new release
+process only slowly getting in shape, I decided to take a random commit
+and call it 4.1.
+
+The release itself happens at an arbitrary point in time, but will serve
+as a starting point for other activities that require some kind of
+starting point to build on, described below.
+
+Future releases will happen more frequently, and with more guarantees
+about the state of the release, like having a cool down phase where
+boards can be tested and so on. I plan to create a release every three
+months, so the changes between any two release don't become too
+overwhelming.
+
+With the release of coreboot 4.1, you get an announcement (this email),
+a git tag (4.1), and tar archives at http://www.coreboot.org/releases/,
+for the coreboot sources and the redistributable blobs.
+
+Starting with coreboot 4.1, we will maintain a high level changelog and
+'flag days' document. The latter will provide a concise list of changes
+which went into coreboot that require chipset or mainboard code to
+change to keep it working with the latest upstream coreboot.
+
+For the time being, I will run these efforts, but I'll happily share
+documentation duties with somebody else. It is a great opportunity to
+keep track of things, learn about the project and its design and various
+internals, while contributing to the project without the need to code.
+
+Please contact me (for example by email or on IRC) if you're interested,
+and we'll work out how to collaborate on this.
+
+The process should enable users of coreboot to follow releases if they
+want a more static base to build on, while making it easier to follow
+along with new developments by providing upgrade documentation.
+
+Since moving away from a rolling (non-)release model is new for
+coreboot, things may still be a bit rough around the edges, but I'll
+provide support for any issues that arise from the release process.
+
+Patrick