A few moments ago we have echoed from the release of GNOME 3.38, the latest stable version of the most popular desktop in the Linux world. Until a few hours ago, we all thought that the next version would be v3.40, in fact we publish an article three days ago that made reference to that numbering, but we were wrong. Or to be faithful to the truth, it is not that we were wrong, it is that the project has changed its mind and has decided that the next version is GNOME 40.
The jump in number draws a lot of attention, mainly because for almost ten years, when GNOME 3.0 was released, they have been adding point or decimal figures until reaching 38 yesterday, but the project has reasons to change the numbering, some in the ones that we can agree or disagree with. In the same way that Unity8 changed the name to Lomiri for convenience, GNOME 40 will receive the new numbering to avoid confusion with GTK 4.0 which is already in development.
GNOME 40, and not 3.40, not to be confused with GTK 4.0
This is how Emmanuelle Bassi explained it in an entry on the GNOME forum, where he has also explained what numberings they will use from now on. For starters, the development versions will be called 40.alpha, 40.beta, and 40.rc. When stable releases are reached, numbers will be added after the period, so the first GNOME 40.0 release v40.1 will follow, v40.2 and so on. Furthermore, the change also means that technologies will be introduced that are far from those that were introduced almost a decade ago.
GNOME 40 will arrive in stable version in March 2021 And, if it continues as before, and that does not have to change, there will be a point or maintenance update every month, so GNOME 40.1 would arrive in April and 40.2 in May. GNOME 41 will already be released in October 2021.