It is kind of funny that F# 4.0 got to the top of Hacker news while F# 3.0 with the type providers (which is an amazing innovation, if you ask me) didn't get that much publicity when it came out.
I think it's just a matter of timing. Now that the F# community is getting bigger (see number of user groups at http://c4fsharp.net), more stable (see the F# Foundation http://foundation.fsharp.org), and Microsoft is becoming more open (reinforcing the already much more open F# space), it is just a good time for looking into F#. And F# 4.0 announcement is a good excuse for that :-).
Though F# 4.0 is the first version of the language designed and developed in a fully open way, which is pretty amazing change - and more important than many language features that could be added to F#.
F# 4.0 makes me excited to be using the language even more. I just started learning back in December after not really enjoying my Python learning experience and have found F# to be such a joy. Your book is one of three at my desk. I've done about 8 years on the .NET stack and Microsoft as a whole has really impressed me these past couple years.
Anyway, thanks for all the work you have put into making the F# community one that is thriving and active! I see your name everywhere when I'm Googling for F# stuff and it's obvious you are one of those 20-percenters doing 80-percent of the work!
I think it's just a matter of timing. Now that the F# community is getting bigger (see number of user groups at http://c4fsharp.net), more stable (see the F# Foundation http://foundation.fsharp.org), and Microsoft is becoming more open (reinforcing the already much more open F# space), it is just a good time for looking into F#. And F# 4.0 announcement is a good excuse for that :-).
Though F# 4.0 is the first version of the language designed and developed in a fully open way, which is pretty amazing change - and more important than many language features that could be added to F#.