The Scribus versioning conundrum.

Which Scribus version should I use in production?

As of today, it is unclear which version of Scribus is fit for production use. The Get Scribus link on the Scribus website takes us to a page with a stable and a development version of the software.

At this point, it seems clear to anyone who knows what the words stable and development mean in the release cycle of software to make an informed decision and download the version fit for production use.

The Conundrum

The problem is that the stable version of the software which, is 1.48 is outdated and abandoned, as pointed out on the Scribus blog. And the next promised stable branch, which is 1.6.x, is not out yet. And this leaves us with no stable version of the software for the moment. Even though the 1.4.9 version exists under scribus-svn on sourceforge.net, it is not yet released.

A Possible Answer

The Scribus team considers version 1.5.7 in the development branch is stable for a development release, but that’s not the same thing as the stable release of the software.

However, as of version 1.5.1, we consider the development branch reasonably stable, so it can be used for serious work by users who accept that not all new features are already working perfectly. Features already available in the officially stable version will work much better in 1.5.1+, though.

The Scribus team

Conclusion

In the end, it’s your choice which version you want to use. If you choose to use the 1.5.x branch in a production environment, make sure you test it sufficiently to avoid surprises and learn the new features because they are not well documented. And some of them might not work as intended.

If you choose to use the stable version from the stable branch, you will miss out on bug fixes and newer features.

Remember Scribus is free software, and the whole Scribus community would benefit from your contribution, whether it’s a donation, a blog post explaining a feature, a YouTube tutorial video, or submitting a bug report.

Let me know in the comments if the post helped you. And how I could improve it.

All the best. Happy publishing.