You're looking at the Changelog. The README is next door, and it explains:
> This repository began as a GitHub fork of joyent/node.
> io.js contributions, releases, and contributorship are under an open governance model. We intend to land, with increasing regularity, releases which are compatible with the npm ecosystem that has been built to date for Node.js.
That doesn't tell me anything. It assumes the reader is somehow familiar with the context and shares the authors' sentiment, although that is not true.
This is what should be explained there:
1. What is the problem with Node.js?
2. What is wrong with Joyent?
3. Why the fork was the only adequate solution?
4. How come this is beneficial (and not harmful) to the community?
5. Is it a drop-in replacement? How does it affect existing projects?
6. How the future looks like from this point of view?
However hard I look at that paragraph in Readme, I still can't see these questions answered.
> This repository began as a GitHub fork of joyent/node.
> io.js contributions, releases, and contributorship are under an open governance model. We intend to land, with increasing regularity, releases which are compatible with the npm ecosystem that has been built to date for Node.js.