GNU Radio 4.0 has reached its first release candidate with a stable core architecture and well-defined API that's no longer expected to undergo major breaking changes. This is huge for SDR development - the new modular scheduler architecture and improved performance look promising. You can now deploy 2-3 MB standalone executables with zero dependencies, which is transformative for IoT SDR and edge computing applications. Anyone tried the RC1 yet with their RTL-SDR or HackRF setup?

Just installed it yesterday and the performance improvements are noticeable, especially with complex flowgraphs. The new type-safe APIs make development much cleaner too. Still working through some of the migration from GR 3.x but the documentation is solid.

The standalone executable feature is exactly what I needed for a remote monitoring project! No more dependency hell when deploying to headless systems. This could be a game-changer for EmComm applications.

As someone new to GNU Radio, should I start with 4.0 RC1 or stick with the stable 3.x branch? I'm mainly interested in learning basic DSP concepts with my RTL-SDR dongles.