Stable releases are made from the -STABLE development branch at approximately 4 month intervals. Major new versions (3.0, 4.0, 5.0, etc..) are released at much longer intervals when the main goals for that release have been realized. 3.0 - October 1998 4.0 - March 2000 5.0 - January 2003 In periods of transition, point releases from the previous branch are still released while the next major release branch stabilizes. (e.g., 4.8, 4.9, and 4.10 were released after 5.0)