WordPress 2.8 released, but you shouldn’t install it yet

The latest version of popular blogging CMS WordPress has been released.

WordPress 2.8 offers a range of enhancements and bug fixes, although is not as big an upgrade as WordPress 2.7 was (which some would argue should have been called WP 3.0). A list of some of the enhancements below.

As with any significant WordPress release (x.x.1 are patch releases so don’t count) my advice always remains the same: you shouldn’t install it yet. Although this release is less likely to break plugins vs 2.7, new WordPress releases without fail nearly always result in compatibility issues with plugins and other features (see screenshot above.) Wait at least a couple of weeks, and then make sure any plugins you’re running on your blog have been certified as being compatible with 2.8, either in their existing form, or with updates.

Here’s the WP 2.8 highlights list:

– New drag-and-drop widgets admin interface and new widgets API
– Syntax highlighting and function lookup built into plugin and theme editors
– Browse the theme directory and install themes from the admin
– Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns
– Allow configuring the number of items to show on management pages with an option in Screen Options
– Support timezones and automatic daylight savings time adjustment
– Support IIS 7.0 URL Rewrite Module
– Faster loading of admin pages via script compression and concatenation