https://developer.blender.org/docs/release_notes/5.0/
5.0 is about to drop, maybe you wanted to share that?
Seems likely.
As somebody who's Blender curious but not a 3D graphics designer (I have minimal CAD experience, that's about it), I'd like to know what makes 5.0 special. The release notes are too technical and granular for me.
They will release the public facing changelog very soon! It’s more visual and highlights all the big changes.
Every time Blender releases an update, I think: the two most amazing open source projects of all time are Linux and Blender.
Pre "open source" free software by GNU such as GCC and Glibc was also quite useful and successful. I mean you are right about those projects but let's not forget about the "boring" stuff (that enabled Linux in the first place).
I love GNU coreutils, and although it's far from my favorite shell, Bash is great for what it is. I also love GNU grep and GNU findutils.
Modern GNU Emacs feels like a wondrous relic transported back in time from an alternate future, from a world where LISP Machines won.
FFMPEG and VLC are pretty marvelous in terms of the huge array of quirks their implementations have to cover, and how comprehensive they are in covering their core functions.
OpenSSH is doubtless one of the most useful and stable computer programs of all time, as well.
QEMU is widely regarded as an incredible achievement, too, and it's also quite useful for lots of purposes.
WINE is pretty incredible, as are various emulators for old consoles, especially the more recent 3D ones.
The world is rich with pretty amazing free software. But I think it's absolutely fair to rank Linux and Blender near the top.
Wine is the chemo to the cancer that is windows :) it's not a step forward that solves a fundamental problem, rather, a workaround for a problem we created
For use with contemporary programs, that's how I think of it. But for "living" software archival purposes, I think it's a direct and concrete contribution to solving a hard problem. (As is DOSBox)
+postgres
Insane velocity. The UI is fantastic, would love to see more tools reuse it, like a DAW or a proper dedicated CAD app but from what I read it is deeply integrated in the project.
> Blender 5.1 is currently in Alpha until February 4, 2026.
Very much early for this, it's still Alpha, and the release notes there aren't even complete yet either. I'd say wait until the official stable release at least, which will get a proper landing page highlighting all the changes in a much better way.
It's wonderful to see that more attention has been given to the video sequencer and the compositor lately.
While a lot of it is still sluggish and cpu-bound, some recent additions such as all the texture nodes we have in the shader tab have massively increased the range of capabilities. Blender as a more viable (even if not the most powerful) NLE is greatly appreciated.
What a weird post considering 5.0 is due to release today