[Python-Dev] Re: Stability and change

[Guido van Rossum]

> In the FreeBSD world (where I also participate), there is no such thing as
> an "experimental" release, such as the linux world might have.  All
> "RELEASES" are stable, by definition.  That's part of why it moves slower.

That's what I like to believe of Python's "final" releases, too.

> There was just an announcement of a "Developer Preview" of 5.0, which is
> still 6 months away most likely.  It is however, kept separate from the
> standard releases. This is the warning that accompanied the announcement:
> 
> ***************************** WARNING ********************************
> 
>   This is a development snapshot, and may include serious software
> bugs.  Do not install this on a machine where important data may be
> put at risk.  In addition, a number of debugging options are turned on
> by default, so the poor performance of this snapshot should not set
> expectations for the final release of 5.0.
> 
> **********************************************************************

How is this different from an alpha or beta release?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)