A new version of WordPress (codenamed Gershwin) is finally out in the wild. It’s been ages in coming and loads of people have been using the test versions to try and iron out as many bugs as possible. Here’s the blurb on the new release:
The focus for this release was making WordPress faster and lighter. The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to 3.2 is a refreshed dashboard design that tightens the typography, design, and code behind the admin. (Rhapsody in Grey?) If you’re starting a new blog, you’ll also appreciate the fully HTML5 new Twenty Eleven theme, fulfilling our plan to replace the default theme every year. Start writing your first post in our redesigned post editor and venture to the full-screen button in the editing toolbar to enter the new distraction-free writing or zen mode, my personal favorite feature of the release. All of the widgets, menus, buttons, and interface elements fade away to allow you to compose and edit your thoughts in a completely clean environment conducive to writing, but when your mouse strays to the top of the screen your most-used shortcuts are right there where you need them. (I like to press F11 to take my browser full-screen, getting rid of even the OS chrome.)
Under the hood there have been a number of improvements, not the least of which is the streamlining enabled by our previously announced plan of retiring support for PHP4, older versions of MySQL, and legacy browsers like IE6, which allows us to take advantage of more features enabled by new technologies. The admin bar has a few more shortcuts to your most commonly-used actions. On the comment moderation screen, the new approve & reply feature speeds up your conversation management. You’ll notice in your first update after 3.2 that we’ll only be updating the files that have changed with each new release instead of every file in your WordPress installation, which makes updates significantly faster on all hosting platforms. There are also some fun new theme features shown off by Twenty Eleven, like the ability to have multiple rotating header images to highlight all of your favorite photos.
Awesome stuff. I’ve just rolled it out on this blog and the admin is looking just fine! If you’re running WordPress, go ahead and upgrade as soon as you can!
Broke a few of my sites – the jquery upgrade killed a few plugins. Managed to sort it but WP update too quickly (understandable if it’s a security vulnerability) and developers don’t keep up with plugin updates. Clients are too eager to update when they see the upgrade and then its “My site is broken, can you help?”
My favorite new plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/disable-wordpress-core-update/
I can update it for them 🙂
I guess the other option is NOT to give them admin access … or to bill them when they break their site 😉
I’ve upgraded and I like the new feature to just see the writing area and no extra buttons, it’s calming. But, I’ve been looking for a email responder to comments and can’t seem to find something that is similar to the one I’ve used with old old version of my blog. Any suggestions? I want to via admin, post a comment answer to the blog that is also sent to the email of the commenter… Thxs!
Owen, ignore my previous comment. I was just sure your awesome plugin wouldn’t work now since I couldn’t find it on wordpress.org as compatible with 3.x but it is and it can, I’ve installed it now and it works fine. Love it, thanks!