The WordPress community has waited for this day for a long time – WordPress 3.0 (Thelonious) is now available for download.
Perhaps the most significant part of this update is the new default theme, Twenty Ten. It’s cleaner, wider and perfectly acceptable to use straight out of the box. The same cannot be said for the theme it replaces, Kubrick, which is now five years old, and although it has served its purpose well, it is past its sell by date.
Twenty Ten comes bundled with easily changeable header images and a colour picker so you can change the page background colour anytime you want to. Making changes like this in earlier versions of WordPress required some knowledge of CSS and HTML.
What else is new?
- Instead of using the admin username at setup, you can now choose your own (should cut the chances of your blog being hacked)
- You can update all plugins and themes with one click
- Help tabs appear on every screen
- Change header images on a post by post basis
- Customize menus using a mix of pages, custom links and categories (this will be a popular addition)
- Create custom post types
- Create shortlinks as you go
There is one more major development in WordPress 3.0.
This one is almost as big as the change of default theme.
It is now possible to manage multiple WordPress installations from a central location. This multi-site functionality makes it possible to run as many blogs as you like from one installation. If you run a few WordPress blogs I don’t need to tell you how much time this could save you when it comes to updating core files, plugins and themes.
Setting up this feature is only easy if you know what you are doing. You will find instructions here.
I have edited the config.php file, but I am not yet comfortable enough with the multi-site feature to make any further changes. I will have to do a bit more research first.
For now, I have downloaded WP 3.0 and created a fresh install on a new testing domain. If you want to upgrade straight away you must backup your current blog and check your plugins for WP 3.0 compatibility.
WordPress 3.0 download counter
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