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+PostgreSQL 11 Beta 1 Released
+=============================
+
+The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces that the first beta release of
+PostgreSQL 11 is now available for download. This release contains previews of
+all features that will be available in the final release of PostgreSQL 11,
+though some details of the release could change before then.
+
+In the spirit of the open source PostgreSQL community, we strongly encourage you
+to test the new features of PostgreSQL 11 in your database systems to help us
+eliminate any bugs or other issues that may exist. While we do not advise for
+you to run PostgreSQL 11 Beta 1 in your production environments, we encourage
+you to find ways to run your typical application workloads against this beta
+release.
+
+Major Features of PostgreSQL 11
+-------------------------------
+
+PostgreSQL 11 major features center around performance, working with larger data
+sets, and ease-of-use.
+
+### Major Improvements to Partitioning
+
+PostgreSQL 11 contains several features that improve working with data in
+partitions, including:
+
+* The ability to partition by a hash key ("hash partitioning")
+* `UPDATE` statements issued to a partition key now move affected rows to the
+appropriate partitions
+* Improved `SELECT` query performance due to enhanced partition elimination
+during query processing and execution as well as parallelized partition scans
+* Support for `PRIMARY KEY`, `FOREIGN KEY`, indexes, and triggers on partitions
+
+and more.
+
+PostgreSQL 11 also introduces the ability for a query to distribute grouping and
+aggregation to partitioned tables before the final aggregation. This is disabled
+by default, to enable, you need to set `enable_partitionwise_aggregate = on` in
+your configuration file or during your session or transaction.
+
+### Improvements to Parallelism
+
+Several features added to PostgreSQL 11 take advantage of the parallel query
+infrastructure and provide significant performance enhancements, including:
+
+* Parallelized hash joins
+* Parallelized `CREATE INDEX` for B-tree indexes
+* Parallelized `CREATE TABLE .. AS`, `CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW`, and certain
+queries with `UNION`
+
+### SQL Stored Procedures
+
+PostgreSQL 11 introduces SQL stored procedures that allow users to use embedded
+transactions (i.e. `BEGIN`, `COMMIT`/`ROLLBACK`) within a procedure. Procedures
+can be created using the `CREATE PROCEDURE` command and executed using the
+`CALL` command.
+
+### Just-In-Time (JIT) Compilation Introduced
+
+PostgreSQL 11 introduces support for Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation to optimize
+the execution of code and other operations at run time. Using components of the
+LLVM project, the introduction of JIT support in PostgreSQL accelerates queries
+that utilize expressions (e.g. `WHERE` clauses), target lists, aggregates,
+projections, as well as some internal operations.
+
+The JIT framework in PostgreSQL is designed to allow future work for
+optimizations that can be added in the future. If you are building PostgreSQL 11
+from source, you can enable JIT compilation using the `--with-llvm` flag.
+
+### Window Functions Fully Support SQL:2011 Standard
+
+As of PostgreSQL 11, window functions now support all options shown in the
+SQL:2011 standard, including `RANGE _distance_ PRECEDING/FOLLOWING`, `GROUPS`
+mode, and frame exclusion options.
+
+### Channel Binding for SCRAM Authentication
+
+The previous version of PostgreSQL introduced SCRAM authentication to improve
+the storage and transmission of passwords using an accepted standard protocol.
+PostgreSQL 11 introduces channel binding for SCRAM authentication, which adds to
+the security of using SCRAM by preventing man-in-the-middle attacks.
+
+### User Experience Enhancements
+
+The PostgreSQL Global Development Group recognizes that while PostgreSQL itself
+contains a robust set of features, not all of them may be easy-to-use and could
+require workarounds in both development and production environments.
+
+Prior to PostgreSQL 11, one such feature was using the
+`ALTER TABLE .. ADD COLUMN` command where the newly created column had a
+`DEFAULT` value that was not NULL. Prior to PostgreSQL 11, when executing
+aforementioned statement, PostgreSQL would rewrite the whole table, which on
+larger tables in active systems could cause a cascade of problems. PostgreSQL 11
+removes the need to rewrite the table in most cases, and as such running
+`ALTER TABLE .. ADD COLUMN .. DEFAULT ..` will execute extremely quickly.
+
+Another feature that fell into this category was the inability to intuitively
+quit from the PostgreSQL command-line (`psql`). There has been numerous recorded
+complaints of users trying to quit with the `quit` and `exit` commands, only to
+learn that the command to do so was `\q` (or _Ctrl-D_ if someone was so
+inclined).
+
+We have heard your frustrations and have now added the ability to quit the
+command-line using the keywords `quit` and `exit` and hope that quitting a
+PostgreSQL session is now as enjoyable as using PostgreSQL.
+
+Additional Features
+-------------------
+
+Many other new features and improvements have been added to PostgreSQL 11, some
+of which may be as or more important to specific users than what is mentioned
+above. Please see the Release Notes for a complete list of new and changed
+features.
+
+Testing for Bugs & Compatibility
+--------------------------------
+
+The stability of each PostgreSQL release greatly depends on your, the community,
+to test the upcoming version with your workloads and testing tools in order to
+find bugs and regressions before the release of PostgreSQL 11. As this is a
+Beta, minor changes to database behaviors, feature details, and APIs are still
+possible. Your feedback and testing will help determine the final tweaks on the
+new features, so please test in the near future. The quality of user testing
+helps determine when we can make a final release.
+
+A list of open issues is publicly available in the PostgreSQL wiki. You can
+report bugs using this form on the PostgreSQL website:
+
+https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/
+
+Beta Schedule
+-------------
+
+This is the first beta release of version 11. The PostgreSQL Project will
+release additional betas as required for testing, followed by one or more
+release candidates, until the final release in late 2018. For further
+information please see the Beta Testing page.
+
+Links
+-----
+
+* Download: https://www.postgresql.org/download/
+* Beta Testing Information: https://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta/
+* PostgreSQL 11 Beta Release Notes: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/static/release-11.html
+* PostgreSQL 11 Open Issues: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_11_Open_Items
+* Submit a Bug: https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/
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