Roadmap for future RCs and Stable

Much water has flown under the bridge since August and my previous blog on release dates, the premises for the back-then estimates revised with security audits and whatnot. Let's review the situation again for everyone's peace of mind.

I have some Dolphin 7 work lined up, and I would much prefer to work on at least a RC that has its database structures and general working logic stabilized, to avoid having to redo substantial amounts of the work when the Dolphin development rolls on to the next RC and onward.

Therefore, I would like to hear these estimates from the staff:

1. When approximately can we expect to see a Dolphin 7 RC1 available for download?
   
   
2. Will RC1 be stable and established enough to permit mod and plugin development without having to substantially revise them with the next RC?
   
   
3. An educated guess on how many RCs we are likely to see before a stable version — two or seven-and-a-half?
   
   
4. And are we likely to see the stable version out and available for the January market?
   

I am assuming that by now, as we are at Beta8 and counting, the Boonex development team will have a realistic perspective on the range of pending work until things are wrapped up. I for one need to budget my time and workload — and I'm positive I'm not alone in this. Pretty please?