wordpresslogoofficial

On 4 July 2011 Matt Mullenweg announced the release of WordPress 3.2 on the official blog. Improvements were made that we will be able to easily see:

The focus for this release was making WordPress faster and lighter. The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to 3.2 is a refreshed dashboard design that tightens the typography, design, and code behind the admin. (Rhapsody in Grey?) If you’re starting a new blog, you’ll also appreciate the fully HTML5 new Twenty Eleven theme, fulfilling our plan to replace the default theme every year. Start writing your first post in our redesigned post editor and venture to the full-screen button in the editing toolbar to enter the new distraction-free writing or zen mode, my personal favorite feature of the release. All of the widgets, menus, buttons, and interface elements fade away to allow you to compose and edit your thoughts in a completely clean environment conducive to writing, but when your mouse strays to the top of the screen your most-used shortcuts are right there where you need them.

and updates were made to improve the underlying code:

Under the hood there have been a number of improvements, not the least of which is the streamlining enabled by our previously announced plan of retiring support for PHP4, older versions of MySQL, and legacy browsers like IE6, which allows us to take advantage of more features enabled by new technologies. The admin bar has a few more shortcuts to your most commonly-used actions. On the comment moderation screen, the new approve & reply feature speeds up your conversation management. You’ll notice in your first update after 3.2 that we’ll only be updating the files that have changed with each new release instead of every file in your WordPress installation, which makes updates significantly faster on all hosting platforms. There are also some fun new theme features shown off by Twenty Eleven, like the ability to have multiple rotating header images to highlight all of your favorite photos.

Overall 400 issues were addressed in this release.  Personally my favorite thing is the fact that they have dropped support for legacy browsers including Internet Explorer 6 (IE6).  In fact, if you are running an older browser that is no longer supported you are going to know it the minute you sign into the dashboard.

ie6inwp32

I think this is a terrific step in eradicating IE6 from the Internet.  WordPress is the most popular blogging platform out there and that means many who may be on older browsers will have to upgrade to a current browser to be able to effectively use their WordPress based site.

This will end up being a great contribution to the community and security of the Internet. 

However, more can be done so if your interested in doing your part to eliminate IE6 check out http://www.ie6countdown.com/