A point release is a minor release of a software project, especially one intended to fix bugs or do minor cleanups rather than add features. The term implies that such releases are relatively frequent, and is generally used with respect to open source projects being developed in the "bazaar model" as described in Eric S. Raymond's essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar".
With retail software, point releases are often, but not necessarily, free updates for users of the latest full version, as opposed to major releases that frequently come at some cost, albeit reduced, even for previous users.
The point refers to fact that the version number is only incremented after the decimal point, i.e. 7.0 to 7.1, or 2.3.1 to 2.3.2.
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Famous quotes containing the words point and/or release:
“In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“The steel decks rock with the lightning shock, and shake with the
great recoil,
And the sea grows red with the blood of the dead and reaches for his spoil—
But not till the foe has gone below or turns his prow and runs,
Shall the voice of peace bring sweet release to the men behind the
guns!”
—John Jerome Rooney (1866–1934)