WP 2.6.1 is “only” a maintenance update and mostly contains fixes for international users, IIS Servers and a few smaller issues.

If you are running WordPress 2.6 it’s not required to upgrade to 2.6.1 but i recommend to upgrade anyway. The past has shown that it’s always better to upgrade to the latest WordPress version as soon as possible.

Thanks to the fantastic “WordPress Automatic Upgrade” Plug-in by Keith Dsouza the upgrade process is no problem and only takes a couple of minutes.

This Plug-in really is the most helpful thing on the planet and i’m glad that an “automatic upgrade” feature will be included in WordPress 2.7 that will arrive later this year (though the Plug-in does an excellent job).

And to all who still believe in WP 2.3.3 and hate 2.5: I never was a fan of WP 2.5 as well. I only upgraded because i didn’t want Technorati or Google ban my site due to outdated WordPress-Versions. But since 2.6 is out everything has changed! I can assure you that WordPress 2.6 works great – much better than 2.5 – and recommend to upgrade. It’s about time ;)

I’m sorry for that but i experienced some unexpected problems after upgrading to the latest WordPress Version with the beautiful name two dot six.

After the upgrade i couldn’t log in anymore which really is a shocking event for every administrator. Many things can go wrong during a sensitive process such as the upgrade of a multi million dollar super blog like mxm…

You see, i can make jokes again because i finally made it back into my be-loved admin area.

It was only a cookie problem in my case and after i deleted the mxm-cookie from my browser cache everything worked fine. I just don’t know why this happened. I never experienced any problems while upgrading my 2.000 WordPress installations before…

Okay, i’m going to tell you that the new WP 2.6 is cool and i recommend everybody to install it. The earlier the better. Just start to forget about 2.3.3 ;)

I describe some of the new improvements which are – in opposite to WP 2.5 – mostly real improvements…

WordPress 2.6 vs 2.5!

WP 2.6 doesn’t bring back the antique 2.3.3, that’s for sure. It still feels like 2.5 and not everything is brilliant made…

But that’s the way it is and WordPress 2.6 holds some damned cool features under your nose that it’s hard to ignore.

I will only give you some hints and tell you what’s good and bad in my opinion.

Press This!

You can make a “Press This” Bookmarklet what makes you able to write quick posts while surfing.

When you find a site you want to write about, just click the bookmarklet. A mini “Write Post” window appears and offers you all required functions. It works pretty much the same like tumblr.com.

Good: “Press This” is a fantastic feature.

Bad: I can’t see any bad here.

Plugin Page!

The plugin page is better structured and contains more functionality.

Good: You even can delete plugins from here.

Bad: Nada

Post Revisions!

That’s cool for bloggers who love to write long articles. From time to time WordPress saves versions of your post which makes you able to work out different versions.

Good: Post revisions are great!

Bad: Some say that this can fill the database too quickly. I don’t care…

Turbo!

WordPress 2.6 can use Google Gears to speed up the admin area. Google Gears will cache the most used files on your computer so they don’t need to come through the Internet every time you call them.

Good: Better speed is always a good idea.

Bad: Google likes to collect data “to make services better”. Anyway, it’s anonymous and you can uncheck that option.

Media-Uploader!

The WP 2.5 Media-Uploader quickly became one of the most hated things in WordPress. The f***g pop-up window never works like it should. Uploading of photos and other files was a trip to hell, absolutely annoying.

But the great masters improved the Media-Uploader – finally! For example, you can decide if you take the Flash-Uploader or a normal Browser-Uploader to upload pictures. Here, i will do a test:

Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza

NO, this is not the Media-Uploader, it’s Dayana Mendoza, the Miss Universe 2008!

You can see it by the caption text underneath the photo. Yet another WordPress 2.6 improvement.

Good: I’m not sure. It seems to work better and there is more functionality (the uploader, not Dayana). But for me the Media-Uploader is still too stylish and slow. I don’t care as long as it works (constantly).

Bad: The pop-up is bigger now but still not adjustable. The options are confusing for many people and personal settings cannot be saved.

How to design the picture caption text in WordPress 2.6!

To make the caption text of pictures make look good you need to add a new class to the css style of your theme: wp-caption-text

I want to have a smaller text in mxm-red which is centered below the picture. So the line of code looks this way:

.wp-caption-text { font-size: 10px; color: #990033; text-align: center; }

You can put this code anywhere in the css style (mine is in the last line).

For what i know photos in old posts are not affected by the new caption text (which is the same as the “alt” tag). But this can depend on your theme, i’m not sure.

WordPress 2.6 on top again!

As a resume i must say that WP 2.6 can satisfy me.

The new features make sense and it seems the developers concentrated on the right things this time.

WordPress still needs improvements here and there (bring back the “Write Post Widgets”!) but that’s just normal…

So get your 2.6 and have fun. Many thanks to the developers of this great software ;)

BTW: The real name is not two dot six but Tyner, after the famous jazz pianist McCoy Tyner. Lucky Guy.

Finally! The new version of the world’s best Internet Browser is online now! Go and get Firefox 3, the installation is done in seconds.

Firefox 3 is even better and faster than before, plus: It contains a lot of very hot new features that are no Freak-Stuff but seriously helpful and innovative.

You can trust me because i’ve installed the latest Release Candidate of that fine software last week and since then the new Mozilla Browser is running absolutely with no problem on my system.

I will tell you 3 kick-ass arguments why you should install Firefox 3! And by the way: You can help to push Firefox 3 into the Guinness Book of World Records…

3 kick-ass arguments why you should download Firefox 3!

1. High technical standard

   Firefox is open-source software, developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It’s a known fact that Fx is a high quality product, ways more secure than Internet Explorer. Firefox gives you many options to protect your privacy and also gives you tools that make surfing really entertaining. Apart from that it’s pretty hard to crash Firefox!  It’s also a known fact that only Firefox can display websites correctly (more or less) because it conforms to the W3C Standard (more than any other browser).

2. Firefox 3 is intelligent

   Check out the new address bar (the place where you write down the website addresses), it’s intelligent and learns from your surfing! What does that mean? Simple, you don’t have to write down the whole url string anymore. Bookmark mxm-studios.com and just write “mxm” into the bar – it will show you a list of all sites (you got in your bookmarks) that contain “mxm” in their name. And you can tag your bookmarks and organize them in the new comfortable Bookmark Manager. After a few days of testing and tagging some of my bookmarks the intelligent location bar started to change my surf experience already. Makes it a lot easier.

3. Lots of “real” improvements

   WordPress Developers should have a closer look at Firefox 3! This is how you can improve a great software: Adding stuff that works and not messing up stuff that worked great before. And improving features instead of just moving/erasing or re-designing them. Look at the Firefox 3 Download- and Plugin-Manager and all the pretty little changes. It’s purely understatement that is understandable by everyone and just works! No over-designed stuff, useless Flash or any other confusing pseudo-improvements at all. You just install Firefox 3, mark the options you need and start surfing. And you feel like home immediately.

Help to establish a world record!

Mozilla wants to set the new Guinness World Record for Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours.

Download Firefox 3 here and get more information at the D-Day Headquarters!

After the installation!

If you have been a Firefox user already you need to do nothing. Just start surfing, check out the intelligent location bar and have a look inside the menues. You don’t have to worry about anything.

If you are a new Firefox User you don’t have to worry, too. Make it your standard browser, import your bookmarks from the old browser (very easy) and take some minutes to check the options (Extras/Preferences).

Both, Firefox experts and noobs should spend some time with the Bookmark Manager. Tag the links that are most important for you and see how it affects the “intelligence” of the location (address) bar.

After all, you’ll be a lucky Firefox user ;)

Done. It works. Puh!

No, i wasn’t afraid about upgrading my blog here on mxm-studios.com to the newest version of WordPress.

But i liked the former 2.3.3 much and think that many of the “big improvements” in WP 2.5 are nothing more than hot air, and in no case better than in 2.3.

In fact there was an important issue that forced me to upgrade immediately. It’s what i call the “Technorati vs. WordPress Issue“. Let me tell you…

WordPress is still the best

Don’t get me wrong, i believe that WordPress still is the best Blog-Software of all. So if you want to start blogging, WordPress should be your first choice.

But in the newest 2.5 the guys messed up things that already worked fine before. They talk about improvements and clap on their shoulders but it’s nothing more than making changes that nobody needs.

Such a waste of brain power!

The Technorati vs. WordPress Issue

Short form: Technorati decided to ignore/ban Blogs that run with old WordPress Installations. That’s due to some security issues.

And yes, even the most popular version 2.3.3 will be banned from Technorati!

Everybody is more or less forced to upgrade his 2.3.3 to 2.5 immediately. And there’s no reason to discuss that because the official Technorati Statement makes it very clear to see.

Technorati’s Statement

You can read the original posting by Ian Kallen here.

After reading the statement i don’t understand why people still believe that Technorati will keep on indexing WordPress 2.3.3 Blogs. That’s foolish.

Referring to Ian Kallen, Technorati will not wait until your blog is hacked. They already have started to ignore you and “recommend seriously” upgrading to WordPress 2.5.

mxm-studios.com is now powered by WordPress 2.5

I asked myself: What is more fun, making a step back with the disappointing WP 2.5 or being banned from Technorati and probably flagged as Spam in Google?

I decided that WP 2.5 is not that poor, it’s not so great like 2.3.3 but still great enough, and so i just upgraded.

How to upgrade a WordPress Blog

This is the way i’ve upgraded my WordPress 2.3.3 to WP 2.5. Don’t worry, it’s easier than it seems.

• I wrote a small message for my visitors into the sidebar to let them know that the site will be off for some minutes.
• I made a database backup. Just in case…
• I made a screenshot of the old WordPress 2.3.3 Admin Dashboard. Just to remember…
• I downloaded the WordPress 2.5 Software from the official source.
• I also visited the extended upgrade information page on wordpress.org. To make sure i don’t miss anything.
• I deactivated all the plug-ins.
• I unpacked the download and started my FTP-Program, connected it with my server.
• On the server i deleted the “wp-admin” and “wp-includes” directories.
• Then I uploaded the new wp-admin and wp-includes…
• I had a look into the “wp-content” directory on the server and deleted the “cache” folder inside.
• In the root directory i deleted all files, except the most important “wp-config.php”, “htaccess” and “robots.txt”.
• And i uploaded the new files to the root directory.
• The FTP part was done, i surfed to the “wp-admin/upgrade.php” and followed the instructions.
• Two clicks later it was done. WP redirected me to the startpage and i logged in to my admin-panel.
• I activated all my plug-ins again and used the new one-click-upgrade function to get the latest versions. That’s the best feature!
• I also installed 2 more plug-ins to make my admin-panel feel more like home. remove-max-width and Dashboard-Widget-Manager
• Then i went to my profile page and switched the color scheme to “Classic” because the new colors look like running out of diesel.
• I checked the Akismet and Stats Pages because they are most important and interesting.
• Finally i wrote this post and removed the message from the sidebar.

I am looking forward to upcoming WordPress versions

Yes i do! But i also hope the developers stop being ignorant and concentrate on some really good features instead.

Features that work and make sense and add a good dose of high fidelity luxury to WordPress.

Listen to the community, guys! They make WordPress being WordPress. You’re only there for the code.

Thanks for reading.