Always nice to see additional development, even if it means more fragmentation. I'll probably pick and chose from 3.1.4 components (once released) to add to my existing 3.9 systems. Of course I don't expect anyone to support these hacked together kludges beyond myself.
Not really fragmentation. Let me explain:
All 3.1.4 components are way beyond in fixes and features than what 3.9 brought to the table. What 3.1.4 lacks is all those third party applications that 3.9 brought along, like video player, web browser, dock bar, tcp-ip stack, etc.
The core of the Operating System is way better in all aspects than what 3.9 ever was/is.
The best part of this, is that taking some precautions, you can integrate 3.1.4 in a working 3.9 system, and get the best things of both worlds: the best OS core (3.1.4), and the more handy applications some of which came with 3.9.
I have already performed the 3.9 + 3.1.4 integration several times: It requires some work, but it is not voodoo magic by any means.