Like many people, to me a version less than 1 denotes a Beta version. But many, many open source projects never seem to actually make it to 1.0, yet they're clearly meant to be used in a production environment (What big milestone did Firfox hit to finally warrant a 1.0?).

I think Beta tests should be conducted in a controlled environment, and then once you get to version 1.0, go ahead and release it to CPAN or Sourceforge or wherever.