1.9rc1 countdown

[Martin Pool]

I'm planning to make a 1.9final release this afternoon, then upload it
into the PPA and run through John's Windows packaging script.

There are a few things still to be merged for 1.9 final:

 * "Fix SFTP.readv regression"
 * "AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'write'"
 * <http://bugs.launchpad.net/?id=293054> -- SSL sockets on Python2.6

There is also an apparent api regression
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr/+bug/293440> and I'll look at that
first.

If there's anything else to take into account or that needs to be
merged for 1.9, please point it out here.

-- 
Martin