1.5 was the first release after moving to git - they freeze the release branch and let the rest of development continue on master, so now releases will tend to

1.5 was the first release after moving to git - they freeze the release branch and let the rest of development continue on master, so now releases will tend to be quicker (we all hope) hence the surprise with 'early' 1.6. now, since we have an alpha, 1.6 is bugfixed on branch, and 1.7 features can be developped on master like now during the 1.6 release schedule.