freetds-stable.tgz is a symbolic link to the current stable version. It is updated wheneveer a new version is released. freetds-patched.tgz is generated nightly from the current CVS release branch. It incorporates all changes to the stable version since the release. Such changes are always bug fixes, never new features. If enough changes accumulate in freetds-patched.tgz, the project maintainer will issue a point release, which becomes the new recommended version (to which freetds-stable.tgz then points). The naming scheme for the stable branch is the same as for the development branch. freetds-patched.tgz unpacks as 0.nn.p.dev.YYYYMMDD, where nn is the current stable version number p is the next point release YYYYMMDD is the date the tarball was created For example, at the time of this writing, the current stable version is 0.82, and freetds-patched.tgz unpacks as freetds-0.82.1.dev.20080921. If a point release is made available in the future, it would be 0.82.1.