[ANNOUNCE] Apache Kafka 4.1.0

[Mickael Maison]

The Apache Kafka community is pleased to announce the release for
Apache Kafka 4.1.0

The release brings many new features and improvements:
- Mechanism for plugin to register metrics
- Allow running multiple versions of connector plugins
- Queue are now in preview access
- New Streams rebalance protocol in early access
- Support for OAuth jwt-bearer grant type
- Improved metadata replication

All of the changes in this release can be found in the release notes:
https://www.apache.org/dist/kafka/4.1.0/RELEASE_NOTES.html

An overview of the release can be found in our announcement blog post:
https://kafka.apache.org/blog#apache_kafka_410_release_announcement

You can download the source and binary release from:
https://kafka.apache.org/downloads#4.1.0

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache Kafka is a distributed streaming platform with four core APIs:

** The Producer API allows an application to publish a stream of records to
one or more Kafka topics.

** The Consumer API allows an application to subscribe to one or more
topics and process the stream of records produced to them.

** The Streams API allows an application to act as a stream processor,
consuming an input stream from one or more topics and producing an
output stream to one or more output topics, effectively transforming the
input streams to output streams.

** The Connector API allows building and running reusable producers or
consumers that connect Kafka topics to existing applications or data
systems. For example, a connector to a relational database might
capture every change to a table.


With these APIs, Kafka can be used for two broad classes of application:

** Building real-time streaming data pipelines that reliably get data
between systems or applications.

** Building real-time streaming applications that transform or react
to the streams of data.

Apache Kafka is in use at large and small companies worldwide, including
Capital One, Goldman Sachs, ING, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pinterest, Rabobank,
Target, The New York Times, Uber, Yelp, and Zalando, among others.

A big thank you for the following 167 contributors to this release!
(Please report an unintended omission)

陳昱霖(Yu-Lin Chen), A. Sophie Blee-Goldman, Abhinav Dixit, Albert, Alieh
Saeedi, Almog Gavra, Alyssa Huang, Andrew Schofield, Andy Li, Ao Li,
Apoorv Mittal, Artem Livshits, Ayoub Omari, Azhar Ahmed, Bill Bejeck,
Bolin Lin, Bruno Cadonna, Calvin Liu, Cheryl Simmons, Chia-Ping Tsai,
ChickenchickenLove, Chih-Yuan Chien, Chirag Wadhwa, Chris Flood,
Christo Lolov, ClarkChen, Clay Johnson, co63oc, Colin P. McCabe, Colt
McNealy, Damien Gasparina, Dániel Urbán, Dave Troiano, David Arthur,
David Jacot, David Mao, Dejan Stojadinović, dengziming, Dimitar
Dimitrov, Divij Vaidya, DL1231, Dmitry Werner, Dongnuo Lyu, Edoardo
Comar, fangxiaobing, Federico Valeri, Florian Hussonnois, Fred Zheng,
Gantigmaa Selenge, Gaurav Narula, Gerard Klijs-Nefkens, Goooler,
grace, Greg Harris, Guang, Guozhang Wang, Gyeongwon, Do, Hailey Ni,
hgh1472, Hong-Yi Chen, Iamoshione, Ismael Juma, Istvan Toth, Janindu
Pathirana, Jared Harley, Jason Taylor, Jeff Kim, Jhen-Yung Hsu,
Ji-Seung Ryu, jimmy, Jimmy Wang, Jing-Jia Hung, Joao Pedro Fonseca
Dantas, John Huang, John Roesler, Jonah Hooper, Jorge Esteban Quilcate
Otoya, Josep Prat, José Armando García Sancio, Jun Rao, Justine
Olshan, Kamal Chandraprakash, Karsten Spang, Kaushik Raina, Ken Huang,
Kevin Wu, Kirk True, Kondrat Bertalan, Kuan-Po Tseng, Lan Ding,
leaf-soba, Liam Miller-Cushon, Lianet Magrans, Logan Zhu, Loïc
GREFFIER, Lorcan, Lucas Brutschy, lucliu1108, Luke Chen, Mahsa
Seifikar, Manikumar Reddy, Manoj, Martin Sillence, Matthias J. Sax,
Mehari Beyene, Mickael Maison, Milly, Ming-Yen Chung, mingdaoy, Nick
Guo, Nick Telford, NICOLAS GUYOMAR, nilmadhab mondal, Okada Haruki,
Omnia Ibrahim, Parker Chang, Peter Lee, Piotr P. Karwasz, PoAn Yang,
Pramithas Dhakal, qingbozhang, Rajini Sivaram, Rich Chen, Ritika
Reddy, Rohan, S.Y. Wang, Sanskar Jhajharia, santhoshct, Satish
Duggana, Sean Quah, Sebastien Viale, Shaan, Shahbaz Aamir, ShihYuan
Lin, Shivsundar R, snehashisp, Stanislav Kozlovski, Steven Schlansker,
Sushant Mahajan, Swikar Patel, TaiJuWu, Ted Yan, TengYao Chi, Thomas
Gebert, Thomas Thornton, Tsung-Han Ho (Miles Ho), u0184996, Uladzislau
Blok, Vadym Zhytkevych, Vedarth Sharma, Vikas Singh, Viktor
Somogyi-Vass, Vincent PÉRICART, Xiaobing Fang, xijiu, Xuan-Zhang Gong,
yangjf2019, Yaroslav Kutsela, Yu-Syuan Jheng, YuChia Ma, Yunchi Pang,
Yung, YunKui Lu, yx9o, Zachary Hamilton, Zhihong Yu

We welcome your help and feedback. For more information on how to
report problems, and to get involved, visit the project website at
https://kafka.apache.org/

Thank you!

Regards,

Mickael Maison
Release Manager for Apache Kafka 4.1.0