I think that it is past time for Hive to have a "stable" and "next" branch. Every release from Hive 0.11 to Hive 1.2 has been a major release in terms of changes and functionality. Part of what we've been missing is a way of making stable releases that don't move as fast and supports the customers with minor new features, but no big sweeping changes. That will be a win for users.
I'm +1 on Alan's plan of making a new release branch. .. Owen
