If that blogging geek in the next cubicle over seems a little more jumpy than usual, it may be because she’s constantly checking to see if WordPress has released version 2.0 of their blogging software.
News has reached the WordPress community that the release is imminent, and could happen as early as Wednesday. At that point, every WordPress blog currently running on version 1.5.x of the software — and there are a lot of them — will suddenly stop working.
Okay. Not quite. Even if you don’t upgrade, your blog will keep ticking along, a gigantic community of fellow users will continue to put their shared knowledge at your disposal, and life will go on. Version 2.0 has lots of snazzy features… most of which your readers will never, ever see.
Which is why most users would be well advised to heed the words of WordPress developer Owen Winkler:
If you have any doubt about performing an upgrade – don’t upgrade! There’s no reason to submit yourself as a guinea pig to test this software, especially if you’re fairly satisfied with what you have already. Granted, WordPress 2.0 is a nice piece of work, but it’s going to be a while before 1.5.2 loses the support of the community at large.Take your time. Learn from the mistakes of the 500,000 other downloaders. After that, take the plunge.
It’s good advice. I just wish I could bring myself to take it…
