I'm sure that many of you have seen that WordPress 2.6 has been released, whether it be from other blogs you read or that nagging little message that the WordPress Dashboard displays every time your version is slightly outdated. I'm sure you have also heard about all the good things that come with this upgrade. If not, I'll go over them real quick...
WordPress 2.6 Upgrades:
- Post Revisioning - If you're writing a nice, long article on something, I take it you save your post from time to time to prevent you from losing it should something bad occur. Lets say you save the article at point one, then work on it to point two, where you save it again. Then you go to point three where it is saved again. By the time you reach point three, you look over your work, and really don't like where it's going or how it's written. You would like to start back at point one. With previous versions of WordPress, this would be impossible. Well, not anymore in 2.6!
- Gears - No doubt the WordPress admin panel is very user friendly and offers dozens of neat features to site owners - however in version 2.6, the admin panel is getting a nice update. WordPress 2.6 makes use of Google Gears when available to speedup and cache static files that are loaded every time you visit your WordPress admin panel. This will undoubtedly make your posting time quicker and more efficient.
- Multiple Check Boxes - Though it seems like such a minor thing, this has been something that many WordPress users have asked for, the ability to select multiple check boxes in the admin panel (using Windows 'Shift' key). You could select multiple posts to remove or select a few plugins to activate or delete at once.
- Config File - The wordpress wp-cofig file keeps all of your database information in it and WordPress calls to it anytime it needs to connect to your server. Though it's really not a problem to have this file in your root directory, WordPress version 2.6 allows you to move it around to anywhere you want. I guess this would give you a better sense of security.
- Theme Previewing - You can now preview what your site would look like with a specific theme applied before you actually go and apply it. This I can see will be very useful iin many ways.
- Other Small Updates:
- Customizable default avatars
- Plugins grouped by 'Active' and 'Not Active'
- More 'Press This' features
- External JavaScript upgrades to TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI
Official WordPress 2.6 Video
With all of these benefits, anyone should feel a certain want to upgrade right away. I usually wait a few weeks for them to get all the bugs out and release 2.6.1, but if you feel you want to upgrade now, let me direct you to this page where you can find an article on some great plugins that make updating WordPress a breeze. But HOLD THE PHONE...
Should I Upgrade Right Away?
If you were to ask me this question, I'd probably answer 'No'. I'd base that answer off of the fact that it is usually a good idea to let others test out new programs and updates and let the developers fix all the bugs and glitches that these users find. But with version 2.6, I have another reason. I have seen (via Digg and other popular-news sites) that there are reports of people having their database wiped clean after installing version 2.6. Other reports include plugins killing themselves, notably very popular ones, such as the 'All-In-One SEO Pack' and 'Top Commentators'.
If I were you, I'd give the developers time to fix up 2.6 before I upgrade. I know I don't feel like having my entire site deleted just for the hell of being able to select multiple check boxes 
.
Hope you found this article helpful!
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Post Tags: downloads, wordpress
Wow... this is funny. I have wordpress.org open in the other tab, I was about to install it. Wow... thanks for this post. might have saved my database lol.