WordPress 3.2 or ‘Gershwin’ as it has being titled, is here, with over 330,000 downloading the upgrade in the first 24 hours (Have you upgraded your version?) but owners Automatic who have been promoting it as ‘lighter and faster’ haven’t been as vocal about how it may affect a blogs user base.
While 3.2 brings new features there a few things you may want to know before you hit the upgrade button.
The new default theme ‘Twenty Eleven’ is a powerful HTML5 contribution designed to keep WordPress powered sites looking cutting-edge and there is also a full-screen writing mode to allow you to convetrate on writing not links or functions around.
Yet, while looks have been improved along with capabilities, some of the back-end changes have cut compatibility dramatically. In version 3.2, WordPress no longer supports PHP4, nor versions of MySQL prior to 5.0, plus, if you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 you’ve had it, as you can no longer use the admin console.
That’s an interesting decision given that many bloggers are some of the most die-hard committed to tried and trusted software and operating systems, but I guess the reasoning is if users haven’t upgraded their browser they are not likely to be upgrading their WordPress install either.
Have you tried 3.2? What are your thoughts?
On July 8th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
I don’t think many bloggers will be using IE6 these days. It’s over ten years old and has some serious security issues. Tried, tested and fit for the scrap heap!
On July 28th, 2011 at 11:46 am
I don’t think many people, Microsoft included are supporting IE6 anymore and really the web needs big companies like WordPress to make a stance and say no – we’re not going to support it.