According to Weblog Tools Collection, referencing comments and announcements made in the developer mailing list, the much anticipated WordPress 2.4 will be released in March not January.
Indeed, WordPress 2.4 has now been removed from the WordPress Roadmap, and WordPress 2.5 is still scheduled for March 24, 2008.
The reasons appear to be because of the holidays, as well as the amount of changes that need to be made to accommodate the new Administration Panels interface. The decision includes skipping version 2.4 and going straight to 2.5, which was to be released in March.
I’ve been warning my readers on the Blog Herald not to be disappointed if this coming version was delayed. There are a lot of great improvements and features coming, and crowding them in during the busy holiday season is just a little much. This also gives WordPress Theme and Plugin developers time to update their stuff in time for the release in March.
The mandatory update, WordPress 2.3.2, is out and is a required update to fix some security vulnerabilities. The full details of the update include an urgent security release to fix a vulnerability in draft posts, suppression of some errors messages that may put your database at risk, and other bug fixes. Upgrade to WordPress 2.3.2 now.
The buzz around the new backend WordPress Administration Panels is spreading. Tubetorial has a “WordPress 2.4 Administration Panel Preview” video which shows just what has been done to date, with a lot more to come. Hyper SVN has a “live” demo of the new WordPress Administration Panels. Expect many of these sneak previews hitting the web as everyone wants to be the first to show it off.
Remember, the delay in releasing this next version of WordPress means that these sneak previews are not the final design. Things will change a lot as the development continues.
Also expect a few more security releases in the interim which may include some of the new improvements they’ve been working on.
You can keep up with more WordPress news and announcements on the WordPress Wednesday on the Blog Herald.
Related Articles
- Staying on Track with WordPress 2.4 News
- WordPress Wednesday News: Will You Turn Off Akismet? WordPress 2.4 Delayed, and More WordPress News
- WordPress 2.3 Tag News
Site Search Tags: wordpress news, wordpress 2.4, wordpress 2.5, wordpress delayed, wordpress versions
Subscribe 
Via Feedburner 
Subscribe by Email
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
Lorelle on WordPress 
29 Comments
Shared blogs should know that if you install 2.3.2, users with admin priv will not be able to view their underling’s drafts unless they know the post number of that draft (and the writer has to have saved their work atleast once, I think). I wish I knew that.
If anyone is concerned about this, keep in mind it’s not the first time WordPress skipped a version number through its development. There was nothing between 1.2.2 and 1.5, while 1.6 (due to some serious leapfrogging) morphed into 2.0.
The number stuck at the end doesn’t matter all that much to the WP folk. It’s all about putting out a great tool.
@ Kaf:
Absolutely agreed. I think WordPress will be better for the wait, without a doubt.
@Ninja: A draft must be saved before it can be viewed by an admin, so I’m missing your point. If it is saved as a draft or saved for preview, the admin will see it. Am I missing something? That’s how it has been. The upgrade was to prevent viewing of drafts by those without permission.
I know, if the user saves their draft, it doesn’t appear. At least, that’s what has been happening to me. Autosaves count as Save and Continue, so I should be able to see their post at some point in my window. I don’t see it.
Maybe it’s just me, but I am gonna try to see if I can reproduce the bug again.
Yep, just did it, don’t see their draft.
Unfortunately I am one who does not accept the holidays as a reason for the delay and believe it has more to do with poor planning. From what I have seen of the admin panel it is a ‘step back’ and not a ‘step forward’ as it makes navigating through WordPress much more time consuming. I suspect the real reason lies in the fact that WordPres was too ambitious about their roadmap and too ambitious about what they wanted for WordPress 2.4. Also I suspect that there are issues with development including design issues (e.g. admin panel), issues with ‘testing’, and I suspect that there maybe some compatibility issues too. Hopefully WordPress will resolve the real issues and not delay the next release even further.
Could the admin panel be any uglier ?!?
@ Matt,
I agree completely, I loaded the video without any sound initially and thought they might be backtracking and showing old panels! The new one looks far less professional at the minute, I’m hoping a lot is cleaned up by the delay!
Well, as I mentioned on my podcast, it’s pretty upsetting to see so many people bashing an admin panel that is only 10-20% complete with it’s redesign. I hope people get the message soon as the panel is likely to undergo major changes from what were seeing today.
And if you still don’t like the admin panel after it’s completed, user’s have the option to change it at their will.
Even if it’s an unfinished new design, looking at it scares me a LOT. WordPress has been a great blogging/cms tool, but I’m afraid the team has it’s priorities totally wrong. Instead of fixing the many security problems once and for all, the focus is on new features and now a new design for the admin panel. A new design that is very ugly and which doesn’t seem to make any improvements. If it is an incremental change, what is the improvement then? And even if it’s said it’s only 10-20% finished, what’s with the colors then?
I really don’t get why they didn’t do anything with all the excellent work that had been done with Shuttle. Now that was a major improvement.
For myself it’s not that big of a problem. But I’m not looking forward to the moment I have to explain to friends and clients for which I’ve use WordPress what happened to the admin panel! And not upgrading is not an issue, with the security fixes and all.
My response to the delay of WordPress v2.4 includes arguments of both critics and supporters.
First, I wince to see the use of the Holidays as an explanation. I’d be more comfortable with a more-realistic accounting. The holidays don’t sneak up on us, and they don’t last several months.
But … the difficulty of ‘managing software-development progress’ (almost an oxymoron) is an historically prominent factor in the broad enterprise. Developers ranging from me & you to Bill Gates, The Pentagon and The New World Order all find themselves subject to this humiliation. There is no surprise in experiencing delays, no need to look for darker forces, or to take it personally.
A more candid & complete treatment of the elements involved in the delay, though, would serve better to both encourage the supporters, and disarm the critics.
Ted “The dog ate my homework” Clayton
@ Matthijs:
As you say, the unfinished design is unfinished. And this is not a new focus. The plan for a new Administration Panel interface has been over two years in the making. The Happy Cogs team have been working on this intensely and this is the release scheduled a year ago for the new design. Shuttle had some great ideas, but we don’t know what the new design will look like so be careful judging the sneak previews.
As for focusing on fixing the security issues “once and for all”, this will never happen. They are working on fixing them as fast as they are uncovered and working to prevent them constantly. There is no end to that issue. Because there are always people working hard to find vulnerabilities, and WordPress is reliant upon PHP and MySQL, which has problems of its own as open source tools, WordPress development works just as hard to protect us as fast as they can, while improving the product.
There are a ton of new improvements beyond the interface already in the new version. It’s faster and cache has been significantly improved, and…well, Westi’s weekly reports will fill in all the blanks on exactly what is going on.
WordPress has been incredibly open with this version with Peter Westwood’s weekly reports, more than for any previous version.
As Kaf said, WordPress has jumped version numbers before. This isn’t a big deal. WordPress will be better for this wait.
@ Ninja:
Autosave doesn’t count as a Save and Continue. It’s a backup. If you can reproduce the problem, please report it to the WordPress Support Forums so someone can follow up on this, or if you can constantly reproduce it, report it as a bug via the instructions in Reporting Bugs.
Well, I do hope you are right and that the new admin panel will look totally different from the previews. But please understand my (and others’) reaction. A preview is a preview. It shows a glimpse of what is to come. And if that doesn’t look good at all … well I won’t repeat myself.
Let’s hope for the best 😉
@ Matthijs:
Actually, these are not official previews but unofficial graphics and screen captures of the work in progress. If they were “official” previews, you’d have a better idea of the final product. Just cuz some eager beavers want to be the first to show off something that isn’t ready…what can you do.
It will be fine and people will love and hate it, as they would any new change.
The developers might have avoided a lot of the negative pre-publicity surrounding the admin overhaul if they’d tackled the architectural issues before screwing around with the CSS. If you start off with cosmetic stuff, people assume that cosmetic stuff is all you’re doing. This would also have given the community more time to beta-test the stuff that actually matters and less to whine that they don’t like blue and orange.
I took the Habari admin pages for a test drive yesterday; sleek, uncluttered, on-trend. If you’re still pining for Shuttle, cross your fingers for a 1.0 release this year.
I’m not going to upgrade if as admin of my blog I can’t view the drafts of other admins.
I have two users with admin rights other than myself on my blog.
It depends on the changes if I will upgrade … but eventually everyone has to upgrade … And for everyone who’s worried about the fact that they might remove functionality… don’t forget that there will probably be a plugin out before you know it …
@ Richard Catto:
The problem that person has is their own, not a problem with WordPress. There are no problems with viewing the drafts of other contributors if you are the admin or editor. Upgrade to protect your blog from security risks. You will still be able to read the drafts.
The issue with the administration was that didn’t even start to get committed until late December. There just isn’t enough time to get everything in during one month and then beta test everything while the administration is still being added.
Two or three security concerns were addressed, which took a lot of time to resolve, because the best solution was created. I think people will be impressed with the security enhancements in 2.5.
For those who wish to open the WordPress hood, there have also been many additions of comments for many of the wp-includes files. Not every file, but it is a good start.
Looking forward on new release. Keep it up. 🙂
I have a simple question, I hope…I am still on version 2.3.1 I keep checking in Fantastico and they don’t have the updated version yet for me to update with one click. I really don’t want my blog messed up, nor do I want to mess it up with trying to update myself. When ever I update I do it through my hosting place. What should I do if Fantastico hasn’t got the new version yet?
@ Randi:
Well, you can’t blame Fantastico – you have to blame your web host. Contact them and tell them that they are at risk and liability for continuing to not provide the most secure version of WordPress. You won’t mess up your blog updating it yourself, but if your host isn’t providing the most recent version, nag them.
Thanks! I will be letting them know soon!
Lorelle, I found this video on YouTube. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=3l5g7F9zk3I) It is a video tutorial on how to update your WP blog yourself.
It is for an older version. The video is a year old. Do you think this would still walk me through doing it myself, even though it’s for an older version?
I contacted my host and they said they don’t know when the new version will come out on my fantastico. So I’m forced to upgrade myself.
@ Randi:
The video should be fine – nothing has changed in upgrading, but the instructions on the Codex for Upgrading WordPress are the best. Simple and easy.
I hope you reminded your web host that they are liable for hack attacks of your blog until they upgrade. 😀
I’m hopeful that whether it be 2.4, 2.5, or some intermediate name 2.3.3, that the programmers will address this problem that is showing up with certain feeds out the Title of their post, but no summary shows up – only the capital “A”.
As I’ve noted to some of the folks with this error with the feed, it only appears to be encountered by people who are using the WordPress Server, but not people who are using WordPress on their own server. This problem has been out there since at least 2.3.1 and it hasn’t been resolved yet, nor has anyone who has contacted tech support at WordPress about it gotten any explanation or reply as to when or if its being looked at.
I’m sorry if this a tad offtopic, but some of us are getting frustrated nothing appears to be getting done in fixing this.
@ Scott Tribe:
While I appreciate your frustration, this isn’t the place to get action. I also don’t quite understand. Is this limited to blogs on WordPress.com or WordPressMU drive blogs? Then the issue needs to be directed towards the MU team on the WordPressMU forums.
Has a bug report been filed? Has this been reported to the developers via the testers or hackers mailing lists? The best way to get this resolved is to report it properly and follow through on that report, not post on the forum or here and expect something to happen.
The problem could be with a Plugin or Theme conflict and have nothing to do with the core programming. I don’t know, but get the best and fastest help you can by reporting the issue correctly. Good luck.
If you were to give advice to me or my children, or even children to come in our family, what would it be?
27 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] -WordPress 2.4 Release Delayed […]
[…] Setelah rilis WordPress 2.3.2 beberapa hari yang lalu, terus dilanjutkan dengan adanya artikel tidak adanya WordPress 2.4 dimana akan langsung menuju WordPress 2.5. Yang rencananya akan diluncurkan pada tanggal 24 Maret […]
[…] была опубликована вот эта статья. А сегодня я прочитал здесь о причинах задержки выхода релиза. Причины, кажется, […]
[…] khảo thêm: WordPress 2.4 Release Delayed – […]
[…] WordPressa 2.4. Dwudziestego czwartego marca światło dzienne ujrzy WordPress 2.5 (info via Lorelle) 😉 Dodano w kategorii: WordPress | 2 · […]
[…] Lorelle mentioned yesterday in her blog that the anticipated WordPress update has been postponed to a March release, rather than in mid to late January as originally planned. In the meantime we have the 2.3.2 upgrade live which is essential for certain security measures. So if you haven’t upgraded yet, do it now. […]
[…] 2.4 has been delayed, 2.5 should be out sometime in […]
[…] of interest, it was recently announced that the next point release of WordPress will be 2.5 instead of 2.4. The delay has been attributed to a large number of new features, as well as the holidays (even […]
[…] 2.4 a fost amanat si inlaturat din Roadmap. Pana cand iese 2.5, va recomand sa folositi WordPress NiceAdmin […]
WordPress z 2.3 na 2.5
Nie będzie zapowiadanej wersji 2.4. W marcu pojawi się od razu wersja 2.5. Jak będzie wyglądać możecie zobaczyć na screenie lub też skorzystać bezpośrednio z dostępnego wczesnego dema. Rozwój skryptu podąża jak widzicie w dobrą stronę,…
[…] Nie będzie WordPress’a 2.4? Co za oszczędność czasu 😉 Jak dla mnie mogliby wypuszczać tylko pełne numery. Ale wtedy wersje ułamkowe zmieniłyby nazwę na “patch” i wszystko już chyba jedno… Swoją drogą – przeczytałem o tym u Lanooz i teraz czytam o tym wszędzie – chłopaki z WP mają rząd dusz, nie? […]
[…] is reporting on her blog – Lorelle on WordPress- that the 2.4 version of WordPress as I speculated in my previous post will be delayed and in fact […]
[…] sindikasi pengembang WordPress ternyata bener, WP 2.4 ditunda peluncurannya, malah mo digabung sekalian ama WP 2.5. Duh, kalo kayak gini perlu segera update […]
[…] wordpress by engel on January 6th, 2008 According to Lorelle, the WordPress 2.4 release will be skipped, so that there is more time for development of some juicy features (you’ll love WordPress […]
[…] update my WordPress to 2.3.2 since 2.4 is just around the corner but reading about it on WLTC and Lorelle’s article, I have no choice but to update my WordPress install. Not really a big deal, but it kinda screwed […]
[…] Lorelle on WordPress Though it was said already on Weblog Tools Collection, Lorelle did us all the favor of letting us know that WordPress 2.4 will be skipped for now and 2.5 will be coming out as planned. Get the details at this blog. […]
[…] 2.4 Delayed – Now Will Be WordPress 2.5 in March: Weblog Tools Collection and others announced that WordPress 2.4 has been delayed in order to give more time to the development of the […]
[…] 2.5 News: WordPress 2.5, skipping over version 2.4, is scheduled for release in March and will include the new Administration Panels design along with […]
[…] WordPress and offering interesting tips and tricks and news. WordPress 2.5 News: WordPress 2.5, skipping over version 2.4, is scheduled for release in March and will include the new Administration Panels design along with […]
[…] WordPress 2.4 Release Delayed […]
[…] 2.5 News: WordPress 2.5, skipping over version 2.4, is scheduled for release in March and will include the new Administration Panels design along with […]
[…] reading that WordPress was going to skip an official release of 2.4 and go straight for the 2.5 release in March I figured I would have a look at how it’s coming along. I was looking […]
[…] Belum lama versi 2.3.3 keluar, awal Maret bakal ada lagi WordPress versi 2.4 yang direncanakannya sih di rilis bulan Januari 2008 kemarin seperti diberitakan oleh Lorelle. […]
[…] အေၾကာင္း အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးေၾကာင့္ 2.4 ဆိုတဲ့ အဆင့္ ကိုေက်ာ္ၿပီး 2.5 ကို […]
[…] they delayed the release of WP 2.4, and now they’re at it again with 2.5. No, they aren’t canceling it and moving on to […]
[…] all this updates are coming its going to be a tough given that the deadline has been moved twice (once because 2.4 was never released | WordPress 2.5 Delayed a Week) now. Not to mention there are over 400 Active tickets as I am […]
[…] WordPress 2.4 Release Delayed Are You Ready and Willing for CSS3? […]