“Like clockwork, the GNOME project released GNOME 2.18 six
months after the release of GNOME 2.16. The new version carries a
number of improvements over the 2.16 release, but doesn’t bring
many ‘must have’ features that would compel users to upgrade right
away.“The GNOME release philosophy is to put out releases on a
predictable cycle, every six months. A release doesn’t need to
include major new features or updates, just whatever improvements
and features are ready to ship. If a spiffy feature isn’t ready by
release time, it gets left on the table for the next release or the
release after that…”