When is the next version of SpamAssassin going to be released?
Short answer: When it's ready.
Longer answer: Probably sooner if you help.
Because of the way SpamAssassin's default scores are determined, it generally takes a lot longer to release major versions (i.e. x.x.0 or x.x0) than we'd like. Here are the major steps we take before a release.
All the bugs that we agree need to be done for the next release need to be fixed. (For 3.0.0, you can look at [http://bugzilla.spamassassin.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3208 bug 3208], you can also query for bugs where the target milestone is 3.0.0) 2. We need to enter a rule freeze and run 3 mass-checks (MassCheck) and perceptron runs to optimize the rule scores. Since these mass-checks require volunteers from around the world to run SpamAssassin over very large volumes of mail, these generally take about a week each. 3. We need roughly two weeks of testing to eradicate any major bugs that creep in. (It's difficult to test SpamAssassin before the mass-checks are done because the scores are generally quite poor, making it relatively unusable on real mail.) During this time we will generally distribute release-candidate (RC) releases for wider testing. Test these! 4. If all goes well, we release.
Minor releases tend to have a lot shorter release schedule as only important bug fixes happen and the scores (usually) stay the same.
How can you help? Simple. Fix bugs. Log into [http://bugzilla.spamassassin.org Bugzilla] and browse through the bugs that are holding up the release. Fix them and attach patches to the bugs. (You may need to also fill out and send in a [http://www.apache.org/licenses/#clas Contributor License Agreement] before we can use your patch.) Also, WeLoveVolunteers.