Automattic recently released the newest version of their popular open source blogging and content management platform, WordPress, version 2.6.

The new release is named “Tyner,” for jazz pianist McCoy Tyner. It is by no means as significant an upgrade as previous upgrades such as 2.5, which sported an entirely new backend design in addition to the standard feature additions and security patches. However, this new version includes many exciting and helpful features that users have been clamoring for, and some that many users never expected. Some notable additions include:

Many other features have been added, including 194 bug fixes. You can find a more complete list, along with a video demo here on the official site. So far, upgrades have been going fairly smoothly. However, there is always the risk that something could go wrong in the process, and there are some users that have reported problems that range in significance from a messed up interface to a fatal PHP error when loading the blog.

If you run WordPress, it's worth it to attempt the upgrade, but remember to backup your database and all your critical files before going ahead. It could also be a good idea to check the websites of the plugins you have installed to check for compatibility.

Further reading