The dust has now settled on the new WordPress 2.5 release and there has been much written about the blog software platforms new release. As with most things that go through change, there are those who absolutely hate it and there are those who love it – there are not many taking the center path.
It is very different and change always takes awhile to get used to. WordPress has been the most popular blog software platform for many years now. It has however had several drawbacks. One of the drawbacks has been the extremely slow admin speed. This has improved marginally as the reliance on Java has been reduced. The reduction in Java has resulted in many of the features undergoing radical changes.
The most notable changes are in the widgets area and in the time stamp functions. The widget re-arrangement just takes a little getting used. It does feel strange when, in this day and age when drag-n-drop is commonplace, that this function has been removed. A little patience and the new setup is manageable. As a blog software platform one of WordPress’ most useful functions for me has always been the time stamp feature. This enable you to change the time and date to create a future post.
The time stamp feature is not so obvious now. It is hidden with a little ‘edit’ link next to the time and date in the write screen. Again, once you find it and get used to it – no problems. Most of the other changes work and work well particularly the easy update of plugins. Any plugin registered through WordPress.com can quickly be updated through a single click in the plugin screen. This is a big time saver for all bloggers using WordPress as their blog software platform.
The bottom line, WordPress 2.5 is marginally faster. The change is so radical that it probably should have been a 3.0 release – WordPress has its own numbering system 0 the rationale known to only a few. As a blog platform it has little in the way of competition and that is unlikely to change anytime soon.
