Episode 41: WordPress 2.5.1 released, Webware 100
I’ve been busy with other things and sitting on this episode, which Jonathan and I recorded several weekends ago. I’ve finally gotten around to editing it down and it includes:
- WordPress 2.5.1 was released April 25th, and includes a significant security fix, so you should update as soon as possible if you haven’t done so already. This version does break the reset password feature, however. (Thanks to Ryan McCue for providing a patch file.)
- Matt Mullenweg announced Sphere integration into blog content to display related posts, and automatic theme-creation for photo bloggers at the Web 2.0 expo in San Francisco.
- WordPress and WordPress.com are Webware 100 award winners in the Publishing category.
- Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror took a lot of heat for his characterization of WordPress as a “Destroyer of CPUs“, and the subject of caching reared its ugly heat once again.
- Raj Dash loves WordPress, but hates WordPress 2.5. Jonathan asks for a way to change the color scheme of the admin panel.
- A new search feature allows for the search of over 3 million WordPress.com blogs. Search results can be ordered by relevancy, our magic secret sauce algorithm that’s the default, or by most recent, so you can see the latest and greatest on any given subject. There are also language-specific engines for every language WordPress.com supports.
- WordPress.com now includes many of the same features available to WordPress 2.5 users.
- WordPress.com blocked in Brazil.
- When you attempt to login to a WordPress account, you are given fairly specific error messages if you enter the username or password incorrectly. This can be helpful to an attacker if they are trying to guess usernames and/or passwords. Login Error Cleanup simply returns the message “Error” if the combination submitted is not valid.
- Widgetized Admin Dashboard is a Wordpress Plugin for 2.5+ that lets you edit the Wordpress Dashboard in the Design > Widgets area. It also removes the WordPress Developer News and WP Planet News that many consider to be “Dashboard Spam” and lets you see exactly what you want to see on your dashboard.
Episode 42 was also recorded a while back and I’ll be publishing that over the next week or so.
Thanks for covering Widgetized Admin Dashboard! I enjoy your podcasts, and never really expected to get talked about on here, but was pleasantly surprised!
I actually still have planet news on my dashboards, I personally like it. But I know there are plenty of people who don’t. Though, in addition to the dashboard customization features, I also created it with the intention of releasing other admin plugins that give you widgets that you can put on your dashboard, which will be a huge plus when I get around to developing those, haha.
Thanks again for the coverage, and keep the podcasts coming!
It’s great to see another WP Podcast episode; I always look forward to them.
But I’ve got to disagree with you about the significance of the changes in WordPress 2.5. Jonathan says, “there were big changes, but there really wasn’t much in the way of new features per se,” and Charles agrees, “It was all aesthetics; it was all cosmetic.”
Actually, there were what I think are a number of significant features beyond the aesthetic overhaul; here are several:
* The automatic plugin updater—you can now upgrade your plugins from the dashboard.
* The Flash-powered uploader that lets you upload multiple files at once.
* The password strength meter and new password hashing.
* Concurrent editing protection.
* Lots of little backend things of interest mainly to developers.
Whether or not those warranted it being called “3.0″ instead of “2.5,” I think they were more than just superficial changes.
Hey there,
Thanks for linking to my Easy Admin Color Schemes plugin. I noticed it wasn’t actually mentioned in the podcast so I’m assuming maybe it was adding in after the fact. But anyway, thanks for mentioning it.
I’ve been listening to the podcast for the last few episodes and I’m loving it. You guys are doing a great job. Keep it up.
As for the poll question, I don’t really have an opinion on that one. It doesn’t really make that much difference to me. I still would have upgraded regardless.
Anyway, great episode. Keep up the great work.
I think you were off the mark about the Sphere integration into WordPress.com. It doesn’t look like it has any of the “big brother” aspects you talked about. It won’t follow the user and keep track of what they read, etc. and it certainly won’t make posts about your behavior (which is what Facebook’s Beacon did).
Sphere just adds links to each WordPress.com post based on the content in that post.
An interesting question was raised in this episode about whether the new admin look should have been released in the midst of a version (as 2.5 instead of 3.0). I actually think WordPress has this correct. They maintain a legacy branch, releasing all security patches to the 2.0.x build. They believe that this version has enough features to work as a product with little change. Think of everything before 2.0 as early releases of 2.0, adding features that get tested and improved with each dot release until they are comfortable that it can be maintained.
Now think of anything 2.1-3.0 in the same way, as as a single version. They add new features, even a new admin theme, all working towards reaching 3.0. At 3.0, they can freeze a branch again and support it as a legacy branch while they move forward to 4.0. No one would want to introduce a new admin theme in 3.0; because the changes are so pervasive, releasing it earlier in the 2.1-3.0 line will allow more time for testing. Ideally, they would have been able to release a new admin theme in 2.1.
WordPress doesn’t release security updates for 2.2 or other point releases. Upgrade from 2.0 to something in the 2.1-3.0 line is somewhat risky; you have to be sure that you will be willing to go with each release until it gets to 3.0. The new functionality after 2.0 is so good that I am willing to take this risk for my own sites, but for some of the sites I build for clients I still use the latest legacy branch (2.0): that way I know I can get them security updates without having to retrain them.
Thanks for mentioning Login Error Cleanup. I was listening to the episode in the car this weekend and was very surprised to get the plug. Have a great summer.