Drupal 8.1.0-rc1 on April 6 and what it means for 8.0.x

Drupal has adopted semantic versioning and a scheduled release cycle starting with Drupal 8.0.0. This means that it is possible within a major Drupal version to add new functionality in a backwards-compatible way, and there is no need to wait for Drupal 9 for improvements. The first such version, Drupal 8.1.0, is going to be released on April 20th 2016, including such improvements as the experimental Drupal Upgrade UI module (for migrating from Drupal 6 and 7) and the BigPipe module (to enhance perceived site performance).

To prepare for Drupal 8.1.0, we released two beta versions in March. Announcements for beta1 and beta2 detail the significant changes made for Drupal 8.1.x. Now, we are ready to create Drupal 8.1.0-RC1, the first release candidate, on April 6, 2016. This means several things in terms of support for Drupal 8.0.x versions and allowed patches in Drupal 8.1.x:

• Starting April 6, the 8.1.x branch will be subject to release candidate restrictions, with only critical fixes and certain other limited changes allowed.
• To ensure a stable and timely release candidate, a commit freeze for the 8.1.x branch will begin April 5 at 12:00 UTC.
• April 6 is also the final scheduled patch release window for 8.0.x, and it will not receive further development or support after that date aside from its final security release window on April 20 (which will not include bug fixes). Site owners and module or theme authors should prepare to update to 8.1.x.
• As a consequence, all outstanding issues filed against 8.0.x will be automatically migrated to 8.1.x after the final 8.0.x patch release. Future bug reports should be targeted against the 8.1.x branch.
• 8.2.x will remain open for new development during the 8.1.x release candidate phase.

See the Drupal core release cycle overview, Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle, and Drupal 8 backwards compatibility and internal API policy for more information.

Minor versions like Drupal 8.1.0 may include changes to user interfaces, translatable strings, themes, internal APIs like render arrays and controllers, etc. (See the Drupal 8 backwards compatibility and internal API policy for details.) Developers and site owners should test the release candidate to prepare for these changes.