WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious”

WordPress

The WordPress dev team just released the much awaited WordPress 3.0 version to the public a couple hours ago. WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” was named after one of the giants of American Jazz, Thelonius Monk. WordPress 3.0 is the thirteenth major release of WordPress and is the culmination of half a year’s work by 218 contributors.

Here’s an excerpt from the official blog post from the WordPress blog:

Major new features in this release include a sexy new default theme called Twenty Ten. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing), post types, and taxonomies. (Twenty Ten theme shows all of that off.) Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation. As a user, you will love the new lighter interface, the contextual help on every screen, the 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements, bulk updates so you can upgrade 15 plugins at once with a single click…

Check out the WordPress 3.0 video tour below:

WordPress 3.0 Highlights

  • WordPress and WordPress MU have merged, allowing the management of multiple sites (called Multisite) from one WordPress installation.
  • New default theme “Twenty Ten” takes full advantage of the current features of WordPress.
  • New custom menu management feature, allows creation of custom menus combining posts, pages, categories, tags, and links for use in theme menus or widgets.
  • Custom header and background APIs.
  • Contextual help text accessed under the Help tab of every screen in the WordPress administration.
  • Ability to set the admin username and password during installation.
  • Bulk updating of themes with an automatic maintenance mode during the process.
  • Support for shortlinks.
  • Improved Custom post types and custom taxonomies including hierarchical (category-style) support. (Try the Custom Post Type UI or GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools plugins to see the possibilities.)
  • A lighter admin color scheme to increase accessibility and put the focus more squarely on your content.

For more information and a detailed list of the new features regarding this latest WordPress release, check out the WordPress 3.0 Code page.

Although I’ve been waiting for this release and excited to install it on my blog, I’ll take my time and wait for a couple weeks before I upgrade my WordPress install to WordPress 3.0. That will be enough time for bugs to be fixed and for me to go over the list of features, changes and requirements. There are a lot of new features and changes so I want to make sure that my blog will be ready before I do the upgrade.

How about you guys? What do you think of WordPress 3.0 Thelonius? Anyone here upgraded their blog to WordPress 3.0 already? What are the new features that you like best? Please share your thoughts.

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12 Comments

  1. I have a backup, yes – now which files, exactly, do I need to replace to “downgrade”? (I mean, I’d really rather not transfer all 6 GB or screw it up worse than it is now.) :)

  2. It’s a conspiracy to get all of our blogs looking the same – since the only “troubleshooting tip” seems to be “disable all your plug-ins and switch to the new Twenty-Ten Theme and see if that fixes it.”

  3. @Holly – Sorry to hear that. Before you do the downgrade, try to fix the issue’s you’re having now with 3.0. Check if your blog meets all the requirements, including your webhosting specs. Also, check if all your plugins are compatible with WordPress 3.0.

    If that doesn’t fix the issues then a downgrade is the last option. Before you downgrade though, do you have a backup of your WP database before you upgraded to WordPress 3.0? If not, downgrading might mess up your blog.

  4. @AJ – Yup, lots of cool new features not only for developers but also for regular users. Nope, haven’t upgraded yet. I’m taking my time. The only time I do an immediate upgrade is when it’s a security release. ;)

  5. I was really exited for the final release of WP 3.0. There are a lot of cool new features, especially for theme developers such as myself. I was also wondering if you have already updated…I have!

  6. @DiTesco – Is that so? Hehe..I don’t mind at all my friend because the more WordPress users know about it, the better. No, I haven’t upgraded yet. I tend to wait a couple weeks or more until I jump and upgrade to the latest stable version. That gives me enough time to read more about the changes and new features and also time for bug fixes to be implemented.

  7. Hi Jaypee. So seems that we have almost simultaneously posted the same article about the Thelonious. Was wondering though, have you made your upgrade yet?

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