WordPress 3.0 final release is coming soon! We can say this because the release candidate (RC1) is released and available for download and testing. Yesterday, WordPress team released WordPress 3.0 Release Candidate (RC1) which is nothing but final step before releasing the final stable version. According to the release note of RC1, WordPress team is looking al set to release the final version because they have removed all the issues and bugs from the beta2 and beta1 of WordPress 3.0.
Here is the excerpt from WordPress 3.0 RC1 release,
The first release candidate (RC1) for WordPress 3.0 is now available. What’s an RC? An RC comes after beta and before the final launch. It means we think we’ve got everything done: all features finished, all bugs squashed, and all potential issues addressed.
Custom menus are finished! Yay!
Multi-site is all set.
The look of the WordPress admin has been lightened up a little bit, so you can focus more on your content.
There are a ton of changes, so plugin authors, please test your plugins now, so that if there is a compatibility issue, we can figure it out before the final release.
Plugin and theme *users* are also encouraged to test things out. If you find problems, let your plugin/theme authors know so they can figure out the cause.
Plugin authors are expected to test the RC1 version on their local machine so that they can resolve the issue before final release. It is not advisable to update WordPress setup of live site to 3.0 RC1 because that may affect your setup. If you know WordPress in a better way then you may take risk but not advisable. Anyway, WordPress 3.0 is having lot many new features and you may try the bug free RC1 on your local machine for a test setup and try those features.