[m-dev.] New stable release

[Julien Fischer]

Hi all,

It's high time we had a new stable release since the existing one is
now a couple of years old.  I propose to create the release branch
towards the end of this week unless anyone has particularly strong
objections to doing so.  We'll try (this time) to have another stable
release in six months time, so anything that doesn't make it into
this release can go into the next one.

Julien.