14 DAY TRIAL // WordPress 3.2 has only been out a week. Already, the team has pushed an update, WordPress 3.2.1, a minor one that fixes several pressing issues which made it into the final release, through the testing phase.
But this doesn't mean that it's too early to talk about WordPress 3.3, in fact, the team is now actively thinking about what to work on and what the emphasis should be.
Of course, there's nothing set in stone at this point, but Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has said that a couple of things he'd like to see done are an improved uploader and a better update system.
An overhaul of the uploader could be handy for those adding a lot of images, videos and media content in general to their posts. As the web becomes more interactive, a simpler, more intuitive uploader could be useful.
More important than the uploader are the changes to the update system. According WPCandy, Mullenweg wants to adopt what has become known as the Google Chrome model, automatic silent updates.
Basically, he wants WordPress and installed plugins to be updated automatically without the user even noticing. This would ensure that most users would always be running the latest and most secure version.
WordPress has been working on revamping the update system for a while now. Automatic updates for plugins were introduced in WordPress 2.5. Later, with WordPress 2.7, automatic updates for the main software were added.
However, these still require the users to acknowledge and allow them. The new system would be completely invisible to the user. This approach, while ensuring that users are safe, does come with a few caveats.
Incompatible plugins will be left behind, bugs may be introduced, leading to user uproar and so on. Of course, users will have the option to disable the silent updates.
WordPress 3.2 also got an update related feature, new versions now download only the files that have changed, leading to smaller downloads and faster updates.