Our mantra around here is “release early and often” and we’re certainly holding to that these days.  The GeoServer team is woking on three (yes, three) parallel tracks of GeoServer.  First, there is the stable branch, currently at 1.6.4, which is current recommended version for those who need rock-solid dependability and minimal fuss.  Last week, we unveiled the first alpha of GeoServer 2.0, which brings a new UI and new customization options.

But today we’re proud to unveil the first release candidate of GeoServer 1.7.0.  We have received plenty of feedback from users, and there has been a great deal of work done to bring this one out of beta.  This version provides many new features, such as Xlink support for WFS 1.1, full implementation of WCS 1.1.1, and per layer security.  I personally like the new OpenLayers toolbar, which allows for dynamic updating of the configuration options.  Special thanks goes out to GeoSolutions for all of their hard work on the GDAL extensions.

So please download 1.7.0-RC1 and give it a spin.  Over 30 bugs and features have been fixed and implemented (respectively) since our last beta.