It seems that Drupal 5.0 is very close to completion with the issue queue at < 10 at the time of writing. Many users awaiting anxiously for RC release throwing a bone to the code contributors who are going like a "cut cat" to the first RC out there.
Ted Serbinski has been working especially hard in the Theme code, giving us split css files which is a much needed core hack.
Ted has also re/created some functions and added features to css inclusion and a variable for that damn feed icon.
Jon Resig's jQuery has made it's debut in the core so be expecting Drupal / JS coders to funk things up A WHOLE LOT. Cheers to Jon for GPLing his code recenlty too, this is a great contribution to the Drupal project.
We're frantically designing new themes for 5.0 release and testing the awesome new features and lots of new theming options. So once we hit the big 5.0 what will the other CMSs be doing to catch up?