It wasn't like that at all, Stef. One of the biggest reasons why we ended up with a 3.8-based image was because the old Squeakland image was based on 3.8. In the other words, we didn't pick mainstream 3.8 image over 3.9. We picked the Squeakland image as the basis.
And why? Because .pr files created in the Squeakland image are not compatible with the 3.9 image. The class shape change introduced by Traits; you cannot load them into 3.9-based image. That was a big no-no.
Ok I understand. I do not remember if this is really the shape changes that break projects I will ask marcus.
We, the whole Squeak community, weren't too careful about the implication of Traits and existing contents when Traits was being integrated to the mainstream image. This was really unfortunate, but we couldn't simply ignore the existing contents.
And, to be honest, having a real control on the entire system was important as development has to be done quickly. Just sticking with an image we understand was another motivation. (At the risk of losing the "improvements after 3.9, that is true.)
Yes but now we lose mutual benefit.
And, like Bert wrote (quoted below), the primary concern is always to provide a better Etoys experience.
I was also thinking about older kids :) Thanks for answering because this is the kind of answer I can understand I still hope to find some times to harvest the changes made in olpc for squeak 3.11 or after Stef