Blender 3.0 was afforded 3 more months of development time to mitigate covid-induced restrictions and to "stick the landing" of the 3.0 milestone, and boy did the Blender Developers make use of this extra time. This momentous release was released a couple of weeks after Blender's most ambitious Open Movie to date, Sprite Fright, during the production of which this release cut its teeth.
Today, 3December 2021, Blender Foundation announces the release of Blender 3.0, to mark the beginning of a new era for open source 2D/3D content creation. Blender dons this new digit as a token of achievement, more powerful mature and adopted than ever, carried on the shoulders of the Blender Foundation, thousands of contributors, thousands of Development Fund supporters, and millions of users worldwide. Blender 2.0 was announced at Siggraph 2000, which means that Blender's giant leap into the 3.x realm was 21 years in the making. This is it, the end of an era, the beginning of a new one.