Should You Upgrade to Wordpress 2.8?

Wordpress, the free-to-use and might I add awesome blogging software, just released their newest version 2.8 the other day. The question now is: should I, or you, upgrade from 2.7 to 2.8? There are both pros and cons to upgrading to a new version of Wordpress. On the upside, Wordpress may have added some new built-in features, as well as fixed some minor bugs here and there. On the downside, a lot of your plugins and other nifty tweaks and add-ons might not be compatible with the newest version. So, what's a blogger to do?

I started using Wordpress right after the release of version 2.7. Since I never used any of the previous versions, I couldn't draw comparisons. One thing I did notice, however, was that around that time it was difficult to find plugins and themes for 2.7. There was a whole lot of 2.5 and 2.6 goodies, and some of them, although technically not compatible, still worked with Wordpress version 2.7, a lot of them did not, though.

Now there are tons of great themes and plugins for Wordpress 2.7. In my opinion, this is the perfect time to start using 2.7. Virtually anything you want for Wordpress 2.7 you can find for free somewhere. Are there as many free luxuries for Wordpress 2.8 right now? I would say no. Which is why I suggest holding off on upgrading to Wordpress 2.8 for at least a couple months. Give the developers some time to play around with it and make new plugins and themes.

The plugins and themes are really what maks upgrading to a new version of Wordpress something to be done cautiously. Many of my Wordpress blogs rely heavily on the plugins I'm using. I also have a few themes that I'm not exactly married to, but I still like very much and would hate to have to change if for some reason they don't work anymore. I have tried installing some 2.5 and 2.6 themes on 2.7 and there's almost always some sort of issue. Whether it's a minor issue or a big one, it's always annoying having to adjust the way a theme is coded.

Anyways, it's really cool that Wordpress 2.8 is now officially out, but it will be really cool in another two or three months. That's why I'm going to hold off for the moment, and tolerate that annoying "upgrade to 2.8" message I see in my admin panel every time I login. If for some reason upgrading messes up a plugin or theme I'm using that I can't blog without, I'd have to go back and reinstall Wordpress 2.7, which would not be fun at all.