Tasks for v1.9 release cycle

[sbueringer]

Please see the corresponding sections in release-tasks.md for documentation of individual tasks.

Tasks

Early in the cycle:

• Prepare main branch for development of the new release ✨ Prepare main branch for release-1.9 development #2461
• Remove previously deprecated code ✨ Remove previously deprecated code #2451

If and when necessary:

• Bump the Kubernetes version

Late in the cycle:

• Bump dependencies
• Create the new release branch
• [opt] Cut beta/rc releases
• Cut the minor release

Continuously:

• Reduce the amount of flaky tests

[sbueringer]

/assign

For now, just to keep an eye on it. We now mainly focus on restructuring our e2e test folder structure. Then we can go through the other steps

(cc @killianmuldoon @chrischdi just fyi)

[chrischdi]

The v1.9.0 release is out.

We will handle the job part for the release-branch via the prowjob-gen PR in test-infra.