Mark Jaquith recently posted over at the WordPress.org blog that the WordPress 2.0.x Legacy Branch is Deprecated – in other words retired and no longer supported for the most important aspect – security updates. It had gotten a little long in the tooth as it was published back in late December 2005.
However, WordPress 2.0 was revolutionary in many ways. Think back to WordPress 2.0 and how that changed WordPress as we knew it at the time. Some of those changes we now take for granted included:
- Completely Redesigned Backend
- Included Spam and Backup Plugins
- Inline Uploading
- Faster Posting
- Post Preview
- User Roles labelled
- Header Customization
WordPress 2.0 certainly set us on the path to the WordPress we know and love today. Congratulations 2.0 on a terrific service life – rest in peace “Duke”.
Time For An Upgrade?
What does this mean for you as an individual blogger, website developer or site admin? Well the first thing it means in my opinion is that you should get upgraded to the latest and greatest version of WordPress which is version 2.8.2 and was mentioned on this site about two weeks ago by Keith – WordPress 2.8.2 Security Update.
Although it was published to fix a XSS vulnerability it has been out in the blogosphere for long enough to reveal any issues with the fix. In fact for me it fixed an issue of posts not being published when they are scheduled ahead of time. Plus I am a geek and like all my stuff to be the most up to date they can be 🙂
What about you though? Have you updated to the latest version of WordPress? Have you made the jump to version 2.8 at least? What keeps you from making that leap to the latest version of WordPress?
Why did they support it as long as they did? Is anyone still using that older version? If so, why?
I will confess I hung on with 2.0.11 for one of my blogs for quite a while, because the jump to 2.2 (I think) broke the theme I was using (and had fallen in love with). Strangely enough, the theme worked again around 2.5, so I made my jump then. I’ve since gone to Thesis, so all that is history now.
Won’t name any names (though I’d dearly love to!) but couldn’t get any support out of the guy who wrote the darned thing.
So, yeah, 2.0.x is kind of the passing of an era for me.
One thing I notice is that it seems like with every new release of WordPress, there’s usually bugs that crop up almost immediately. I actually waited until 2.8.2 to jump from 2.7.1.
— Daniel
I thought I had read a while back that it was part of a deal to be included in some Linux distribution; they had to maintain the 2.0.x line for a set amount of years. I guess that limit has now expired.
Why did they support it as long as they did? Is anyone still using that older version? If so, why?
Yes, I am still using the wordpress 2.0.11. It is much easier to use and less complicated. It let me install the plugin/theme and do the work myself.