Saw over the Gentoo Linux newsletter that the next release of Gentoo Linux is expected to be released as 1.4_rc3, rather than 1.4_final.

This decision was based on a number of factors, including:

- KDE 3.1 is not yet released, but is expected to be released imminently
- The 2.4.20 kernel is experiencing IDE problems on x86. While patches are in the pipeline to fix these issues, they require more testing before being declared "stable"
gcc-3.2.1-r6 has been recently released and requires additional testing
- Recent upgrades to XFree86 require additional testing

And, most importantly, any final release of Gentoo Linux needs to be as stable as possible before being released to our users.