[$] The first part of the 6.14 merge window

As of this writing, just over 4,300 non-merge changesets have been pulled
into the mainline repository for the 6.14 release. Many of the pull
requests this time around include remarks saying that activity has been
relatively low this time around, presumably due to the holidays. So those
4,300 changesets are probably closer to the merge-window halfway point than
usual. Much of the work merged thus far looks more like incremental
improvements than major new initiatives, but there still have been a number
of interesting changes in the mix.