Just when you thought WordPress couldn’t be a better CMS engine, they go and release version 3.0.
My personal take on this latest version is pretty positive. I run multiple blogs for myself and for clients, all on the WordPress platform. I originally chose WordPress because it was more user friendly that Drupal or Joomla. Anyone with limited web knowledge could launch a WordPress blog and get going relatively quickly. This was key for me as the majority of my clients wanted me to design or customize their blogs, after which they would take over most of the maintenance and content.
The new version, nicknamed Thelonious ( 
jazz fans), added a some cool new capabilities without compromising
their user-friendliness. Anyone can still launch and go. One of the more obvious and refreshing changes is the standard theme. WordPress finally put a fork in Kubrick and now offer Twenty Ten – they call Twenty Ten a “sexy new theme”, I say that its still a basic theme, but highly customizable and much more 21st century than Kubrick ever was. So kudos to WordPress on that fact alone.
User Experience with WordPress 3.0
User interface on the new version is essentially the same so any web-phobes or near web-phobes won’t be thrown for a loop. In fact, it’s even better for less code experienced users due to the “help” tabs available on just about every screen. But you will notice some enhancements such as menu creation capabilities, one-click custom backgrounds, headers – oh and thank-goodness…short links! Basically a lot of what programmers have been manually coding into text widgets and editing in the back office files to enhance functionality is becoming built-in. Again a good thing for those without a lot of coding know-how.
Multi-User Capability – Run 1 or 10 million Blogs
WordPress 3.0 also offers MU capability with, as they say, the power to run 10 million blogs off of one installation. That makes thing much easier for administrators at say, large companies who run multiple blogs by several different users. This new function is not inherent however, and if it is something you want to do you’ll have to do a bit of configuring. From what I understand its nothing too daunting and in the end extremely worth it – especially if you’re the one who has to oversee multiple blogs. In the MU module a “Super Admin” is created with facilitates control over certain aspects of all the blogs underneath it.
Plug-ins May Act Out
One thing to be wary of with WordPress 3.0, or rather to be prepared for, is that some or many of your plugins may break. Personally I’ve had one or two, non-critical plugins cease to function with the upgrade. But I’ve had no problems with previously installed themes which was a big relief considering the customizations I’ve done. Hopefully plugin developers are on the stick upgrading their code in order to offer updates that are compatible with WP 3.0.
Upgrade Now…or Wait?
One other thing to consider is NOT upgrading to the new WP 3.0 right away. True, it has gone through extensive testing, but there are always new bugs. Waiting a month or two for the bugs-fixed version may not be such a bad thing.
Here is the official launch video from WordPress:
