14 DAY TRIAL // The first beta release of the upcoming WordPress 3.2 is now available for testing. The big focus with this release has been on performance and it should be visible already, WordPress 3.2 Beta 1 should feel faster than the the current release in many areas.
There are also new features to play around with, the full-screen mode of the editor has gotten a revamp to help bloggers focus on what they need to do, write. It now works in HTML mode too.
The Admin section user interface is getting a spruce-up to keep it from looking too stale. A new default theme is being introduced with the WordPress 3.2 release.
"It seems like just yesterday that we released WordPress 3.1, but it’s actually been almost three months. We’ve spent that time putting together a new release focused on performance improvements, and are ready for our first beta testers," WordPress announced.
WordPress 3.2 is still a couple of months away from launching. When it does become available, users upgrading should notice a performance improvement as the software has gotten some optimizations and enhancements.
The upcoming release will also debut the new default theme for WordPress blogs. WordPress 3.0 introduced TwentyTen, the first change to the default theme in ages, but, as the name implies, the goal was to have a new theme each year.
For WordPress 3.2, the team has settled on Duster and is basing TwentyEleven on it, but also adding some enhancements and making some changes.
"If all goes well, we hope to release WordPress 3.2 by the end of June, though that is (again, as always) subject to change depending on how the beta period goes. The more help we get with testing and fixing bugs, the sooner we will be able to release the final version," WordPress encouraged users.
Of course, all of the regular warnings apply, this is beta software and is meant for testing and nothing else. You shouldn't be using it on production machines unless you really know what you're doing or just like living on the edge.