BloggersWalk

WordPress recently released WordPress 2.6. Many people already updated the system and this morning, I updated BloggersWalk to 2.6 too. However, one of the blogs that I write for, but do not own, still runs the old WordPress 2.1. A few people have also asked me if the update to the latest release is actually worth it. To update or not to update, that is the question…

New Features!
Usually these major updates have new features in them. In the case of WordPress 2.6, I’m really enjoying the plugin manager. Those who are new to WordPress will not know this, but those who did use any of the versions before this release knows the pain of having to activate the plugins one by one. Now, it can be done in bulk. Also, although very minor, I really like the little word count feature added with this release. These updates often bring a collection of great updates. While some may be of no use to you, note that some can be of use to you.

Security Concerns
Okay, most of the time, if there is a security issue, a minor patch is done. An example would be an update from 2.5 to 2.5.1. However, most of the time, major udpates also have significantly improved security systems. A blog is a big thing with a lot of information on it. Losing all the data would be horrible. You should backup frequently anyways to prevent any disasters. However, if you have a good secure system in place you won’t even need to get to the point of needing to restore because of a hacker or a corruption. Usually major releases have these security updates. Personally I upgrade for this reason than for the new (but often not useful) features.

Plugins & Theme Compatibility
Plugins take your site to a whole new level. It quickly adds new and interesting features to make your blogs look and/or function better. However, often with updates, plugins can be a problem. With WordPress 2.6, this is not a big issue as nothing much changed on the plugin side. Nonetheless, this isn’t guaranteed with 2.7, 2.8, and so on. Again, with themes, nothing much changed with WordPress 2.6. However, with the later versions, compatibility issues can come up, such as not being able to fully use the new features. So, you have to decide, are the updates worth more than a few plugins and/or themes you may not be able to use? Or vice-versa?

A Bigger Hassle?
Upgrading your blog to the latest release might be a bigger hassle. It might sound easy, but if everything does not work out as planned, the two options are to stick with the bunch of errors or downgrade. Downgrading at times might not be possible, and even if it was possible, it would be a major hassle to do it most of the time. Is it worth the risk?

Conclusion
Am I confusing you by any chance on whether to upgrade/update or not? The decision is really up to you. Jason seemed to be against upgrading so early and I too am (except for this release). So you’re probably wondering what you have to do then. With every upgrade, the first thing I do is backing up. I back up everything just incase of a disastrous failure. In the case of such an unfortunate event, all you need to do is download a release archive and install it with your old database.

Did you upgrade to the recently released WordPress 2.6? If so, are you liking it? Did you face any difficulties? If you didn’t, why didn’t you upgrade yet?