Hi All,

Tonight we are entering the 'Hard Freeze', the very last phase before the final tagging and branching of 0.40, which is planned for tomorrow evening.

Ted has created the final release candidate, 0.40pre5, which is now available from the website.

Testing is essentially complete, however we're encouraging people to give the release a quick review. We're looking for silly mistakes like forgetting to update the version number, packaging problems, and major show-stopper bugs. But also add anything else you find to the bug tracker, and we can sort those issues out during the next development cycle.

During this Hard Freeze phase, we're going to let the dust settle a bit, do a once-over, and then proceed with packaging and delivering the release.

As with all prior releases, once it's cut we need to switch into marketing mode, in order to get the word out. This is where Inkscape users can make a big contribution. We want to get word out on all the major blogs, articles into relevant online magazines, and word of mouth to friends and family. Stay tuned. :-)

Bryce