3 years, 17 alphas, 2 betas, and over 7,500 commits later, OpenSSL version 3 is here

The OpenSSL team has released version 3.0 of its eponymous secure communications library after a lengthy gestation period. Coming nearly three years after its predecessor, version 1.1.1, the update lays claim to 17 alpha releases, two beta releases, and more than 7,500 commits. Equally significant is a near-doubling of the …

[karlkarl]

"3 years, 17 alphas, 2 betas, and over 7,500 commits later"

... and a number of forks ;)

[John Brown (no body)]

...and a partridge in a key pair!

[John Robson]

If ever

There was a bit of software for which “when it’s ready” is the only appropriate release date…

[Anonymous Coward]

So does this mean

NSA gave their seal of approval ? Asking for a friend, you know.

[Overcharged Aussie]

Re: So does this mean

Replying for a friend...No.

[sev.monster]

Re: So does this mean

You're not my friend, pal.

[A random security guy]

Re: So does this mean

The GCHQ also stamped it. The real kiss of death.

[Anonymous Coward]

1.1.1 to 3.0?

What happened to version 2?

[Julz]

Re: 1.1.1 to 3.0?

See above, didn't get GCHQ approval ;)

[-v(o.o)v-]

Re: 1.1.1 to 3.0?

Pah, sequential versions, so 20th century.

Bigger numbers are better and some are so good they approach 3 digits, needing extra testing.

[Jon 37]

Re: 1.1.1 to 3.0?

There's an extension for OpenSSL that is certified by the US government, which some government contracts require. That was separate, and had version 2.0. Now it's integrated into OpenSSL, and they needed to avoid two "version 2.0" releases of that module. So they called the whole thing version 3.0.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: 1.1.1 to 3.0?

1+1+1 = 3

Simple.

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations. From all that I've ever heard, it was a code base that needed some cleaning, and was going to take a lot of effort to clean. I've never coded that deep into a system; SSL was always wrapped by coders who came before me on projects, and I just used what they'd built.

Kudos none the less. I'm sure this simplifies things for a lot of formerly-hairy code. :)