+ Either:
+ * a Unix-like system (including Windows with Cygwin)
+ * Windows Vista or newer
+ * Mac OS 10.4 or newer
+
+ A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. TeX Live for Linux, MikTeX for
+ Windows).
+
+ Python (2.7 or 3.5 and newer) to convert old LyX files and for
+ helper scripts.
+
+How does the LyX version scheme work?
+
+ LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
+ number "2.x.y" indicates a stable release '2.x', maintenance
+ release 'y'. In other words, LyX 2.3.0 was the first stable
+ release in the 2.3-series of LyX. At the time of writing, the
+ latest maintenance release in the 2.3-series is LyX 2.3.4.
+
+ Please note that maintenance releases are designed primarily to
+ fix bugs, and that the file format will _never_ change due to a
+ maintenance release.
+
+ In addition to the stable releases and maintenance releases, some
+ users may want to give a ``release candidate'' a try. This is a
+ release that should be stable enough for daily work, but yet may
+ be potentially unstable. If no major bugs are found, the release
+ candidate is soon released as the first stable release in a new
+ series. To summarize, there are three possible types of file names
+ that are of interest to normal users:
+
+ lyx-2.3.0.tar.gz -- stable release, first in the 2.3-series
+ lyx-2.2.4.tar.gz -- fourth maintenance release of LyX 2.2
+ lyx-2.4.0rc1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable release candidate
+
+ Note that the goal is not parallel development as for the Linux
+ kernel --- the team is too small to afford that --- but rather to
+ include all the simple and safe bug fixes. This is so that the
+ maintenance burden on us is not too high, and so that system
+ administrators can install new releases without fear. Experience
+ shows that these releases will contain a few new features, and
+ that the bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.
+
+ If you get the source from Git, the version string will look like
+ one of:
+
+ 2.3.1dev -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
+ release 2.3.1 will eventually be tagged.
+ 2.4.0dev -- this is the main branch on which stable
+ release 2.4.0 will eventually be tagged.