Beginner? Wait before upgrading to WordPress 2.0

With the impending WordPress 2.0 release coming soon, I am advising newbies and beginners to wait before they upgrade. Don’t take that wrong, I love WordPress. However, 2.0 is such a major rewrite, I want to spare beginners the heartache of fixing numerous problems in case things begin to break. My advice is this:

• Let the more adept developers have their crack at 2.0 first.
• Watch the WordPress support pages or the beata forum during the first several weeks after the release. Note any significant issues that arise that may be an issue for your own blog.
• Watch to see if a significant fix is needed that would require a 2.01 or 2.02.
• Make a list of all the plugins used to make your site work. Go to the WordPress 2.0 Plugin Compatibility chart. Look to see if your plugins are on that list. If not, write/leave comments for the authors of your plugins to either a) issue a new plugin or b) test to make sure it works with 2.0. I use RunPHP a lot. Unfortunately, it is on the incompatible list at the moment. So I won’t be upgrading until there is a fix for that. At the moment only four of the twelve plugins I use on this site are compatible.
• It may be the case that a plugin has been integrated into the regular WordPress code. Read the release notes when 2.o is released.
• Read other blogs, like Asymptomatic, which will provide more extensive coverage and commentary about the release and upgrade.
• If you’ve never ever used WordPress before and don’t currently have a blog/site that uses WordPress, then by all means WordPress 2.0 is a good place to start! See my article about free blog software for reasons why I like WordPress.