Hey Folks, We are happy to announce the first RC for 1.5.1, the first bug-fix release is the 1.5.x series, please kick the tires. Given the scale of the changes from 1.5.0 we are planning a short RC cycle with a 1.5.1 final tagged on 2016-01-06. To see the differences between 1.5.0 and 1.5.1rc1 <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/compare/v1.5.0...v1.5.1rc1> . We had not planned to do a 1.5.1 release, but the style changes for v2.0 revealed a number of critical issues which needed to be addressed. The time line for 2.0 is contingent on how well that work goes and if we discover any other major work that needs to be done to support the default style changes. The goal is v2.0.0rc1 sometime in the Q1 of 2016 with a long rc cycle to have as many users as possible try the new defaults prior to tagging v2. Thank you to everyone who reported bugs and fixes against v1.5.0. Tom