Spring's 3.0 version is now GA release, before that they have launched 3.0 RC1, RC2 version Also, there was Spring 3.0 M2 version. What's the difference between GA, RC, M versions?

I distribute software online, and always wonder if there is a proper way to better define version numbers. Let's assume A.B.C.D in the answers. When do you increase each of the components? ...

I work for a product development company.We first do internal releases,and then public release.I was wondering, how other product developing companies manage their release? How do you give release ...

Is it frowned upon to release your software with a version number high than 1? For example, some non tech-savy people might see a competitor's product with a higher version number as meaning...

Or a release candidate? My google-fu fails me.

It is quite intuitive that at least Gamma comes after Beta and Alpha. But how about CTP, RTM and Preview releases? Which one comes first and last? MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework) is current...

In an ideal world, our development processes would be perfect, resulting in regular releases that were so thoroughly tested that it would never be necessary to "hotfix" a running application....