As of few hours ago WordPress Development team has announced the release of WordPress 2.5 RC1. Meaning that even they don’t consider this release 100% ready for production and want to test the waters with as wide audience as possible.

You should take same precautions because in my test - WordPress 2.5 RC1 is not ready to take the space on my production blogs. I have discovered that couple of the plugins that my blog heavily relies on are not compatible with new version.

If you don’t have an option to run a Development blog that contains the exact copy of your existing blog - I recommend you take some preventive measures BEFORE making the jump to new core version. On my blog following 2 plugins failed to Activate due to fatal error:

• alinks
• Popularity Contest

Since my blog heavily relies on the above plugins I can’t proceed with upgrade. And here are a few simple things you can check to ensure your blog readiness for 2.5:

1. Determine which plugins are absolutely “MUST HAVE” on your blog
2. Visit the plugin’s homepage and see if other people making any comments on 2.5 issues (if any, people will report them).
3. Visit the homepage for the theme you are currently using and see if an upgrade is available or in plans. 2.5 takes advantage of built in Gravatar functions but they need to be coded into theme, so unless you know how – but your theme developer for update.

Outside of the “show stopping” issue with plugins I like the new version. I love the ability to edit (delete on many) rss feeds on your Admin dashboard. After all – with several blogs running all I need is just ONE blog that has those feeds and disable it in the rest for speed.

Looks like the issue with Full Text RSS feed have been finally addressed in this release, so not longer do we need to use plugins for functionality which should be there in first place.

OneClick plugins Update! This one comes straight from my WordPress Wish List and I’m glad it is finally implemented! Word of warning: If you blog is in sub-domain or subfolder – this might not work! I attempted to use the feature on one of the sub-domains and while the old version of plugin was wiped out – new one never got placed in correct location. I am still trying to figure out what happened but because I have a large number of domains on that host – I haven’t found just WHERE did The Upgrade Go?

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