[cflsystems]

@ Alex

As I see it you have 2 options - 4.5.6 or 4.6.x

Option 4.5.6: If you release it as the next fix in the same branch everyone now on 4.5.x will jump to it with or without the knowledge that this will break their 3rd party mods - we've seen it happen and we know it will happen. The 3rd party vendors will not be ready for this for sure - how we can be ready and modify our code if don;t have the upcoming distribution to prepare? And do you think a developer with 100 mods can look at all of them for a day or 2? Not happening. So it doesn't matter if the XC users do the upgrade themselfs or hire someone else to do it - their live cart will drop all 3rd party mods. nd what do you get? 100's of angry XC users blaming you, blaming developers, and then developers blaming you... and I can also see it XC staff saying - sorry - contact the vendor of the mod as we cannot help you there.... If you release it as 4.5.6 all the blame and liability will fall on QT and you will get many unpleasant posts in here. Trust me.

Option 4.6.x: Release 4.5.6 that fixes bugs in 4.5.x only. No new features, no new modules, ONLY bugs fixes. This will allow any 4.5.x cart to be safely upgraded to 4.5.6 and fix possible bugs in their older versions.
Release 4.6.x with the new fetaures, new ways of loading modules, etc., new modules... whatever you want to include in there. And release it as beta. This will give time to 3rd party developers to adjust to the new release, new XC users or existing to test the new version and decide if they want it or not... And this will only benefi QT - while doing this and modifying modules for this new release the 3rd party vendor and user will report to you bugs so you can fix them before you release this version as final. Take the liability off of your hands. Anyone who wants to start new store based on this beta release or upgrade existing store to it is doing this at thier own risk.

Think about it. If you release 4.5.6 like you want to now it will call for another disaster and angry customers. Is that what you want?
If you release bug fixing ONLY 4.5.6 and beta 4.6.x with the new features you can only win.

Do a survey here and see what your customers think about this? If I am wrong I will gladly admit it