Inkscape v1.0!

[Jonopen]

downloaded and installed - first new "letter" sized document comes in as 9.5 x 11 instead of 8.5 x 11 - first bug?

Could be I suppose. I don’t fully know my way around the program. I checked the page property options for US Letter and that seemed be ok (see attached partial screen shot below). If you can reproduce the bug, Inkscape have info on how to write a bug report on their website, which is linked under the Help menu (screenshot below).