Editing Gnus (section)

=== Versions ===
In general, users receive Gnus bundled with their copy of [[GNU Emacs]] and only need to worry about version numbers if they want to upgrade to newer versions themselves instead of receiving updates through Emacs or their operating system's packaging system.

The following versions have been released:
* Gnus 5 ((ding) Gnus) – November 1995
** Gnus 5.1 rebranded 5.0.13 bundled with GNU Emacs 19.30/19.31<ref name="faqs.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/gnus-faq/ |title=Gnus (Emacs Newsreader) FAQ |publisher=Internet FAQ Archives}}</ref>
* Gnus 5.2 (September Gnus) – May 1996
** Gnus 5.3, a rebranded 5.2.38 bundled with GNU Emacs 19.32 and all later versions of GNU Emacs 19.x<ref name="faqs.org"/>
* Gnus 5.4 (Red Gnus) – January 25, 1997
** Gnus 5.5, a rebranded 5.4 bundled with GNU Emacs 20.1 (September 17, 1997) and also included in XEmacs 20.4
* Gnus 5.6 (Quassia Gnus) – March 8, 1998
* Gnus 5.8 (Pterodactyl Gnus) – December 3, 1999
* Gnus 5.10 (Oort Gnus) – May 1, 2003
** Gnus 5.11, a rebranded 5.10 bundled with GNU Emacs 22.1 (June 2, 2007). 5.10/5.11 development from the "Oort" development branch wrapped up around 2008. Some 5.11 versions, such as that packaged by [[Ubuntu Linux]] as "5.11+v0.10", are actually based on the later "No Gnus" development branch. 
* Gnus 5.13 (No Gnus) - bundled with [[GNU Emacs]] 23.1 (July 29, 2009)
** The "No Gnus" development branch began January 4, 2004, and wrapped up in early 2012, with version 0.19.  
* Gnus 5.14, Ma Gnus (or 真 Gnus),<ref name="ma-gnus">{{cite web |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/Ma-Gnus.html |title=Gnus manual, 11.2.8.8 Ma Gnus}}</ref> is the current<ref name="gnus-git-log">{{cite web|url=http://git.gnus.org/cgit/gnus.git/log/ |title=the master Gnus git repository, changelog |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304065404/http://git.gnus.org/cgit/gnus.git/log/ |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> development version, v0.7 first released in May 2013.<ref>[http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/83096/ Ma Gnus 0.7 Release Announcement] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229034342/http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/83096/ |date=December 29, 2016 }}</ref>
The odd minor version numbers, like 5.3 and 5.5 are for the Gnus versions bundled with [[GNU]] [[Emacs]]. The even version numbers are the unbundled releases. So for example, Gnus 5.5 is similar to Gnus 5.4, but bundled with Emacs 20.1.

Development is done using "named versions", whose first letters run backwards in the alphabet; "No Gnus" v0.19 was released in early 2012, and development transitioned to "Ma Gnus". No named version ever reaches 1.0, instead when it is considered stable enough for general release, it sheds its name and gets packaged with as simply "Gnus <version number>". Entering the "V" command in the Groups buffer of a running copy of Gnus will usually cause it to divulge a version number, but there is no easy way for an end user to know if, for example, "No Gnus 0.9" is older or newer than "Gnus 5.10.8".

After being developed separately for 22 years, the developer of Gnus announced that further development would take place inside [[Gnu Emacs]]' [[git (software)|git]] tree. A side effect of this change is that support for [[XEmacs]] and older versions of Gnu Emacs will be dropped.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/2016/01/01/its-about-ethics-in-gnus-development/|title=It's about ethics in Gnus development|date=January 2016 |quote=Gnus (and a couple of other Emacs packages) are dropping XEmacs support.}}</ref>