The KiCad project is excited to announce the first release candidate for the next major version 9.0.0 is available for testing. Version 9.0.0 is expected to be released by the end of January 2025.
You can obtain the release candidate for your platform here:
The list of new features in version 9 can be found on the Post-V8 New Features and Development News forum thread
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Important information for anyone who is new to KiCad and hasn’t been through a release cycle yet:
- You can install KiCad major versions side-by-side on Windows and macOS. The new version will have its own independent settings; just installing it won’t overwrite any existing settings.
- Design files and custom libraries that are edited in 9.0 will no longer be readable by 8.0 (or an older version). Never work directly on your existing projects or libraries when testing a release candidate for a new major version. Always make a copy for testing, and work on the copy.
- There are no special release candidate builds for Ubuntu or Fedora, you can just install the nightly build channel on those platforms and you will get the latest.
- If you test the official RC build on Windows or macOS, you can install a future nightly build on top of it to get bug fixes that have been made since RC1 was tagged.
And as always, make sure to use the “Report Bug” function from the Help menu if you run into a problem.
As for 4.): What do you mean by installing “on top”? Running the installer executable without running the uninstaller before?
(i wonder since some time already if there is some way of just “copying over” files) like with apps that are redistributed in some archive form.
Btw: What is the reason that KiCad does not provide an update button inside the software? 
(i guess because this is hard for cross - platform apps?)
Yes
Nobody has built the feature yet. It would only apply to Windows and macOS users, but it could apply there. We added notifications of new versions in V8, so at least you will see a popup prompting you to download the new version. But we don’t use this for release candidates, only stable releases.