there is a 2.56a release now since there were some crash bugs (with undo + some physics systems or something like that).
ton has just posted the further roadmap:
Short term roadmap prediction:
- March: 2.57 release (with at least a week an RC for test)
Being our 'first' 2.5 official release, it could align with a make-over of blender.org!
- April/May: 2.58 as final for the 2.5 project (based on 2.57 feedback?)
In May we then can move svn to 2.60, and start merging it with the urgent waiting branches:
- render branch (sintel)
- bmesh (how's it going?)
- GSoC projects, like rigid body anim
i am so looking forward to bmesh. then blender is complete for me. of course the global illumination features of the render branch will be nice too but actually i don't need the renderer that often.
