Well, it's not that it's inconceivable to miss the release date before the end of the year (although the posts made some months ago hinted to version 1.8 being out well before xmas). It's that it's all very vague. I've been under the impression in the latest two months that it was just a matter of some testing being left and it always seemed that a release was behind the corner. Now instead it's behind my 2011 calendar.