People are asking questions about how the upgrades from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6 are going for client sites. They’re also debating whether to build sites in Joomla 1.5 or 1.6.
Joomla’s leadership has made an announcement concerning the roadmap to Joomla 1.7 and 1.8, as well as support of Joomla 1.5. All companies relying on Joomla for their websites need to read this. This deeply impacts your business.
In summary, here are the facts from that post:
- Based on the roadmap, Joomla 1.6 will be in active development through July 2011.
- Joomla 1.7 is due out in July 2011. It will be in active development through January 2012.
- “Joomla 1.8” (not the official name), the next long term stable release, is due in January 2012. That will be supported for a longer period of time than 1.6 or 1.7 — at least for 15 months.
- Joomla 1.5 is supported through April 2012, when it reaches end of life.
- A migration utility will be available to move sites from Joomla 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 to “Joomla 1.8”.
If you are adopting Joomla 1.6 today, you are using software that will be supported for a SHORTER period of time than Joomla 1.5. You will definitely need to upgrade clients with 1.6 sites to 1.7 or 1.8 at some point. And, given the long timelines for building some sites, 1.7 might be out before you finish your 1.6 site.
Throw in the time it takes 3rd party developers to update their extensions and templates to Joomla 1.6, and then potentially Joomla 1.7, and I think the path is pretty clear.
Furthermore, we do not recommend upgrading any existing Joomla 1.5 site to 1.6 or 1.7, unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. Once “Joomla 1.8” is released, and extensions and templates have a chance to catch up, we will be talking with clients about migrating their sites at that time.