In thinking about the next versions of Gramps, I wondered what the pattern of releases was. So I assembled the following release history (apologies if I missed a major change in a version description):
Gramps Major Version Release Intervals & Key Changes
| Version | Release Date | Months Since Previous | Major Technical & Feature Enhancements |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | Feb 11, 2004 | — | Initial stable release using XML for all data storage. |
| 2.0.0 | May 11, 2005 | 14.9 | Introduced the Berkeley database (BSDDB) backend for improved performance. |
| 2.2.1 | Oct 30, 2006 | 17.6 | Cross-platform expansion: First official support for the Windows operating system. |
| 3.0.0 | Mar 24, 2008 | 16.8 | Introduced Gramplets (dashboard widgets) and support for styled text in notes. |
| 3.1.0 | Mar 7, 2009 | 11.4 | Added Tags to primary objects and introduced the Surname list view. |
| 3.2.0 | Mar 15, 2010 | 12.3 | Rebranding: Changed name from GRAMPS to Gramps; introduced a new plugin system. |
| 3.3.0 | Jun 12, 2011 | 14.9 | Infrastructure improvements; paved the way for major citation and place model changes. |
| 3.4.0 | May 21, 2012 | 11.3 | Citation Model: Source References were converted into a new standalone Citation object. |
| 4.0.0 | May 21, 2013 | 12.0 | GUI Modernization: Transitioned to GTK+ 3; first version to offer Python 3 support. |
| 4.1.0 | Jun 18, 2014 | 12.9 | Introduced Place Hierarchies and support for multiple alternate names for places. |
| 4.2.0 | Aug 3, 2015 | 13.5 | Place Model refinement: Added PlaceNames with specific date and language support. |
| 5.0.0 | Jul 24, 2018 | 35.7 | DB-API Backend: Decoupled the database layer, allowing for the experimental SQLite plugin. |
| 5.1.0 | Aug 21, 2019 | 12.9 | SQLite Default: SQLite replaced BSDDB as the default backend to increase stability. |
| 5.2.0 | Feb 23, 2024 | 54.1 | Added shared citations for event references and enhanced automated backup controls. |
| 6.0.0 | Mar 19, 2025 | 12.8 | Modernized Serialization: Switched internal representation from pickled BLOBs to JSON. |
| 6.1.0 | Oct 2026 | 18.4 | Lot’s of things in the works including FamilySearch integration |
I’d like to propose that as we move forward we get on a more regular release schedule, and that the releases occur faster. We know we have a series of development steps in the works. In the past I think we waited until we had something worth releasing. But I think now we have changes that accumulate and there is no need to keep them from being released.