Salama,

I can understand you frustration, expecially having to install that many skins.  But, then again in Joe's Blog about the 5.0.1 release (http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Blogs/tabid/825/EntryId/2191/DotNetNuke-5-0-1-Released.aspx) he states very clearly that "While we have made significant strides in dealing with the most significant issues discovered in the 5.0.0 release, it is still not at a level where we recommend this release for production use.".  So although 5.0.1 is not an official Beta/RC release, it is not a version that is ready for production (expecially for mission critical sites).  This fact was clearly stated in announcement for the release of 5.0.1, and it does allow the community to help test it so that as many bugs as possible can be fixed in the next version.  Our release testing of the core is not perfect, but it continually has gotten better and it will continur to get better as we move forward.

As a community member though, as with all open-souce projects you can install it and use as you see fit, including production.  As Alex has stated he is using it for some of his sites and has not has any major issue / showstoppers (and there are many other community members just like him).  I think the core team has done a pretty good job making sure there are no showstopper/major bugs with each release (but nobody is perfect). In addition, what one community member thinks is a showstopper/major bugs is a minor bug to another.  Take for example the batch skin installer.  I have never used that features of DNN, so the fact that is does not work is not a major issue to me, and probably never will be.  So when determining the severity of an issue, you look at whether the bug makes DNN or a major feature of DNN unusable, is there a workaround,  and how many people will the bugs affect.  In the case of the bug in question, it does make the batch install of skins unusable, but you can still install skins one at a time (although it means more work).

Please do not think I am trivializing the bug that this post was about.  I am just trying to explain that determining the severity of an issue and deciding when it will be fixed is not a black and white tasks.  To one community member an issue might be a showstopper, to another only minor, and to another trivial.  The issue will be fixed sooner or later, the only question is when it will be fixed.  Also, if you are a developer then you can be part of the solution.  Please feel free to troubleshoot the issue, fix the code that so it works, then zip up any files that you changed to implement the fix, and then attach the files to the issue in gemini with a comment that you have fixed the issue and attached the code.  If you cannot attach files to the issue because it is in the private DNN Core Gemini project, feel free to send it to me or Alex so we can attach it to the issue for the issue for you.  My email address is shawn.mehaffie@dotnetnuke.com.